DEPRESSION IN ELDERLY CAREGIVERS OF PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE:

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DEPRESSION IN ELDERLY CAREGIVERS OF PATIENTS WITH
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE WHAT DOES IT DEPEND ON?
Department of Alzheimer's disease and related
disorders Mental Health Research Center of
Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Moscow
Russian Federation
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Conflict of Interest Disclosure Maria Gantman

• Has no real or apparent
• conflicts of interest to report.

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Prevalence of depression in elderly caregivers of
people with dementia

• Prevalence of depression (up to 83) is much
  higher than in general population of elderly
  (lt7) (Drinka et al. 1987 Blazer et al. 1987)
• In many works it was shown that depressive
  symptoms in elderly are linked with increased
  mortality

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Objective

• The objective of a study was to evaluate the
  prevalence of depression in elderly caregivers of
  patients with Alzheimers disease and to elicit
  the correlation of depressive symptoms number
  with clinical characteristics of a person under
  care

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Methods

• Sample elderly (60 years old) caregivers of
  patients with Alzheimers disease or mixed
  dementia
• (N 65) 32 male, 33 female
• Age 70,56,4 years (range 60-87 years)

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Methods

• Inclusion criteria
• Age 60 years
• Living with a patient with Alzheimers disease or
  mixed dementia
• Exclusion criteria
• Caring for more than one patients

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Methods

• Scales
• Geriatric Depression Scale was used for a
  quantitative measure of depression severity.
• Two characteristics of a patient under care were
  analyzed
• dementia severity (Mini-Mental State Examination
  - MMSE)
• psychological and behavioral disorders
  (Neuropsychiatric Inventory - NPI)

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Criteria of depression

• gt5 score of Geriatric Depression Scale
• Complaints and clinical symptoms (depressed mood,
  sleep disorders ect)

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Statistics

• Spearmans coefficient of correlation
• Fishers exact criterion (for depression
  frequency analysis)

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Results

• Prevalence of depression was 35,4 (n23)
• Only 6 people (26,1 of people with depression)
  could recall other depressive episodes in the
  past
• More than 2/3 of sample had their first
  depressive episode

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Results

• Correlation coefficients
• Geriatric Depression Scale and MMSE
• 0,12 (pgt0.05)
• Geriatric Depression Scale and NPI
• 0,27 (plt0.05)
• There was no significant correlation with age of
  a patient or a caregiver, their gender and with
  duration of caregiving (years)

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Conclusion

• In a population of elderly caregivers of people
  with dementia number of depressive symptoms do
  not correlate with cognitive impairment and
  duration of caring, but correlate positively with
  psychological and behavioral symptoms of a
  patient

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Investigation of ApoE gene influence is in
progress

• ApoEe4 allele is a risk factor for depression and
  other consequences of stress
• 38 of caregivers in the sample were genotyped
  (others refused)

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Present results of genotyping
Had depression Did not have depression
ApoEe4 carriers 3 6
ApoEe4 non-carriers 11 18
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The sample is too small

• Maybe this study could be multicenter?