Caregiving burden (Alzheimer's parent)

Caregiving burden refers to the strain experienced by those who care for a parent with Alzheimer's disease, and it significantly impacts their mental health and quality of life.

Several studies have explored how caregiving affects adult children caring for parents with Alzheimer’s disease. These studies found that caregivers often experience emotional stress, social isolation, and physical exhaustion over time. Caregivers may also recall their parents’ behaviors before the onset of Alzheimer's, which can influence current caregiving experiences and feelings of burden. Technological tools have been used to monitor behavioral health characteristics in caregivers, revealing high levels of burden among this population.

This issue is closely tied to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and it often intersects with social support networks that can either alleviate or exacerbate the caregiver's stress.

The evidence base is primarily observational, which means causality cannot be definitively established.

Sources

• Three-year trajectories of caregiver burden in Alzheimer's disease. (PMID:24919767)
• Turkish Adult Children as Caregivers of Parents with Alzheimer's Disease: Perceptions and Caregiving Experiences. (PMID:28201932)
• Deliver us from evil: carer burden in Alzheimer's disease. (PMID:21393292)
• Recalled attributes of parents with Alzheimer's disease: relevance for caregiving. (PMID:25750833)
• Behavioral health characteristics of a technology-enabled sample of Alzheimer's caregivers with high caregiver burden. (PMID:28894746)
• Epigenetic approaches to psychiatric disorders. (PMID:20373664)

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