Panagiotis Alexopoulos1,2,3,4, Rigas Soldatos5, Evagellia Kontogianni5, Maria Frouda4, Souzana Loanna Aligianni1, Maria Skondra1,3,6, Maria Passa5, Georgia Konstantopoulou7, Evangelia Stamouli5, Evgenia Katirtzoglou5, Anastasios Politis8, Polychronis Economou9, Maria Alexaki5, Kostas Siarkos5, Antonios Politis5,10. 1. Department of Psychiatry, Patras University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Patras, Patras, Greece. 2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany. 3. Psychogeriatric unit for neurocognitive assessment and caregiver counselling, Patras Office of The Hellenic Red Cross, Patras, Greece. 4. Patras Dementia Day Care Center, Corporation for Succor and Care of Elderly and Disabled -FRODIZO, Patras, Greece. 5. First Department of Psychiatry, Eginition Hospital, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece. 6. Department of Nursing, School of Health Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Patras, Patras, Greece. 7. Special Office for Health Consulting Services and Faculty of Education and Social Work, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Patras, University of Patras, Patras, Greece. 8. Charing Cross Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Imperial College London. 9. Department of Civil Engineering (Statistics), University of Patras, Patras, Greece. 10. Department of Psychiatry, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have mental health implications for both people with neurocognitive disorder and their caregivers. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to shed light on relations between caregiver mental reaction to the pandemic and caregiver distress related to neuropsychiatric symptoms, memory impairment progression, and functional impairment of people with neurocognitive disorder during the period of confinement in Greece. METHODS: The study included caregivers of patients with mild (N = 13) and major (N = 54) neurocognitive disorder. The caregiver-based telephone interview was based on items of the neuropsychiatric inventory questionnaire, the AD8 Dementia Screening Instrument, and the Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale. Regarding the mental impact of the COVID-19 crisis on caregivers, four single questions referring to their worries in the last seven days were posed, in addition to the scales Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item (GAD-7) and the 22-item Impact of Event Scale-revised (IES-R). A stepwise linear regression model was employed for studying the relationship between caregiver distress and demographic and clinical data and caregiver mental reaction to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. RESULTS: Caregiver distress severity during the confinement period was influenced not only by memory deficits (p = 0.009) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (p < 0.001) of patients, but also by caregiver hyperarousal (p = 0.003) and avoidance symptoms (p = 0.033) and worries directly linked to the COVID-19 crisis (p = 0.022). CONCLUSION: These observations provide further evidence for the urgent need for support of caregivers of patients with neurocognitive disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic.
BACKGROUND: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have mental health implications for both people with neurocognitive disorder and their caregivers. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to shed light on relations between caregiver mental reaction to the pandemic and caregiver distress related to neuropsychiatric symptoms, memory impairment progression, and functional impairment of people with neurocognitive disorder during the period of confinement in Greece. METHODS: The study included caregivers of patients with mild (N = 13) and major (N = 54) neurocognitive disorder. The caregiver-based telephone interview was based on items of the neuropsychiatric inventory questionnaire, the AD8 Dementia Screening Instrument, and the Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale. Regarding the mental impact of the COVID-19 crisis on caregivers, four single questions referring to their worries in the last seven days were posed, in addition to the scales Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item (GAD-7) and the 22-item Impact of Event Scale-revised (IES-R). A stepwise linear regression model was employed for studying the relationship between caregiver distress and demographic and clinical data and caregiver mental reaction to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. RESULTS: Caregiver distress severity during the confinement period was influenced not only by memory deficits (p = 0.009) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (p < 0.001) of patients, but also by caregiver hyperarousal (p = 0.003) and avoidance symptoms (p = 0.033) and worries directly linked to the COVID-19 crisis (p = 0.022). CONCLUSION: These observations provide further evidence for the urgent need for support of caregivers of patients with neurocognitive disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Entities:
Keywords:
COVID-19; Confinement; impairment in activities of daily living; memory deficits; neuropsychiatric symptoms
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