Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for reducing emotional burden in family caregivers of patients with dementia: A pilot study

Abstract

Background & Objective: Recently, psychoeducational support to caregivers of patients with dementia (CPWD) has attract much interested. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) which accept negative thought has been arising as a next generation of CBT. Here, we investigate the effect of ACT on emotional stress of caregivers of patients with dementia.

Method: The family caregivers of patients who have behavioral psychomotor symptom in dementia were recruited in this study. Thirteen participants in the intervention group and thirteen participants in the control group were analyzed. The participants in experimental group underwent a 6-week ACT program in one on one, face to face format. The outcome measurement were Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), Beck depression inventory-Ⅱ (BDI-Ⅱ), Zarit burden inventory (ZBI) and acceptance action questionnaire-16 (AAQ-16).

Results: In experimental group, the score of BAI, BDI-Ⅱ, ZBI and AAQ-16 significantly improved compared to baseline score. The difference of the change of the score of BAI, BDI-Ⅱ and ZBI after ACT program showed significant difference between intervention and control group. The change of BDI-Ⅱ significantly correlated with the changes of AAQ-16.

Conclusion: The result of this study showed that the depression, anxiety, and caregiver burden markedly reduced in intervention group compared to control group. The change of depression is correlated with the change of the degree of acceptance. Our results support that ACT can be useful counselling program for caring of family of CPWD.