Intervention for Emotions in Caregivers of Dementia

The University of Hong Kong (HKU)

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Depressive Symptoms; BPSD; Expressed Emotion

Treatments: Behavioral: Caregivers Of dementia Processing Emotions (COPE) program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06359704

kevinszc

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a 6-week Caregivers Of dementia Processing Emotions (COPE) program using the integrative therapy to reduce EE (primary outcome) in family caregiver of PLwD to alleviate the caregivers' depression, improve social dynamic with the PLwD, and mitigate the perceived stress from BPSD (secondary outcomes).

Full description

A dual-modal (face-to-face and online approaches), client-customized Caregivers Of dementia Processing Emotions (COPE) program can be developed to address EE in caregivers, such as (1) reduce caregivers' EE, (2) reduce caregivers' depressive symptoms, (3) reduce the behaviorally interactive social dynamic of maladaptation (i.e., dysfunctional dyadic relationship and quality of care), and (4) improve caregivers' perceived stress from PLwD's BPSD.

Enrollment: 56 estimated patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• with a high level of expressed emotion as indicated by a cut-off score of 35 or above on the Family Attitude Scale (Chinese version; FAS-C);(Kavanagh et al., 1997; Van Humbeeck et al., 2002; Yu et al., 2016)
• provides care at least 4 hours per day;(Moon & Adams, 2013)
• consent to participate, and
• no acute psychiatric illness.

Exclusion criteria

• with a low level (scored lower than 35 on FAS-C) of expressed emotion
• do not provide consistent or sufficient care (fewer than 4 hours per day) to PLwD
• do not consent to participate;
• with comorbid acute psychiatric illness.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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56 participants in 2 patient groups

COPE program

Experimental group

Description:

a 6-week Caregivers Of dementia Processing Emotions (COPE) program using the integrative therapy to reduce EE (primary outcome) in family caregiver of PLwD to alleviate the caregivers' depression, improve social dynamic with the PLwD, and mitigate the perceived stress from BPSD (secondary outcomes)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Caregivers Of dementia Processing Emotions (COPE) program

Waitlist control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in the waitlist control group, in comparison to those in the intervention group who receive treatment immediately, are placed on a waiting list and receive the same set of intervention sessions after the formal trial. This approach ensures participants have equal opportunity to receive treatment while strengthening the study's validity and overall quality by maximally controlling for potential confounding variables and biases