Behavioral Activation for Dementia Caregivers

Dementia Caregivers Clinical Trial

Official title:

Behavioral Activation for Dementia Caregivers: Scheduling Pleasant Events and Enhancing Communications

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03552159
• Other study ID #: HCPF2012
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: December 1, 2012
• Est. completion date: June 30, 2016

Study information

• Verified date: May 2018
• Source: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This project was designed to test a model targeted intervention for dementia caregivers telephone program consisting of both psychoeducation and behavioral activation components to reduce the burden of caregivers. The program is delivered by telephone to increase accessibility and sustainability for caregivers.

Description:

The study compared two telephone interventions using a four-month longitudinal randomized controlled trial. For the first four weeks, all participants received the same psychoeducation program via telephone. Then for the following four months, eight biweekly telephone follow-up calls were carried out. For these eight follow-up calls, participants were randomized into either one of the two following groups with different conditions. For the Psychoeducation with BA (PsyED-BA) group, participants would receive eight biweekly sessions of BA practice focused on pleasant event scheduling and improving communications. For the Psychoeducation only (PsyED Only) group, there would be eight biweekly sessions of general discussion of psychoeducation and related information

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 96
• Est. completion date: June 30, 2016
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2015
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 25 Years to 70 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

They were caregivers aged 25 or above and must have be caring for a care recipient diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease for at least 3 months. They should be the primary caregiver and a spouse, kin (e.g. daughter/son or daughter/son-in-law) or sibling of the care recipient.

Exclusion Criteria:

To ensure intervention fidelity, participants who showed signs of severe intellectual deficits, demonstrate suicidal ideation, exhibit evidence of psychotic disorders, or cannot read or speak fluent Chinese / Cantonese were excluded.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Dementia
• Dementia Caregivers

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Behavioral activation
Activity scheduling, monitoring, review and re-scheduling

Other:
• Psychoeducation
Education on dementia, caregiving stress, event scheduling and communication skills

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (4)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Stanford University, The University of Hong Kong, United Christian Hospital

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Depressive Symptoms	Measured by CES-D	Change from baseline through study completion, an average of about 5 months
Secondary	Sense of Burden	Measured by Zarit Burden Scale	Change from baseline through study completion, an average of about 5 months