Aberrant behaviors and Alzheimer's disease: mental health effects on spouse caregivers.

The relationships between well-being of 262 caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients and forgetful, asocial, and disoriented behaviors on the part of the impaired spouse were examined using three one-way MANOVAs. Results indicate that asocial and disoriented behaviors have linear relationships with levels of burden, specific mental health problems attributed to caregiving, and the extent to which caregivers sacrificed aspects of their social life. Asocial behaviors were also linearly related to overall level of caregiver depression. Forgetful behaviors, on the other hand, have relationships with burden, specific mental health problems attributed to caregiving, and social change that are nonlinear. Data are interpreted in terms of the predictable course of Alzheimer's disease and associated role expectations.