A Pilot Study Assessing the Benefits of a Dementia Caregiver Educational Brochure on Decreased Empathy and Emotion Recognition in Patients with Neurodegenerative Disease

What is the study about?

This study evaluates an educational brochure tailored to caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease dementia, Lewy body disease, frontotemporal dementia, and vascular disease dementia. The goal of the brochure is educating caregivers about the decreased ability to detect emotion and decreased empathy that can be seen in dementia, increasing caregiver competence in providing care, and teaching caregivers ways to manage over time that lessens burden and improves quality of life.

Eligibility–Who can participate?

• The patient must be aged 50 to 95, speak English, and have a diagnosis of one of the following:
  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • Parkinson’s disease/dementia with Lewy body
  • Frontotemporal lobar degeneration-syndromes
  • Vascular dementia
• The caregiver must be aged 30 to 95 and speak English

Time requirement:

The 1.5-hour initial visit will involve the caregiver completing questionnaires, structured interviews, and a computer task, and the person with dementia completing a computer task. A 20-30 minute follow-up phone call with the caregiver one month after the initial visit will involve completing questionnaires.