Coping Therapy Reduces Depression, Anxiety in Dementia Caregivers

A brief coping strategies therapy which provides stress relief and emotional support for people caring for relatives with dementia can reduce depression and anxiety and improve wellbeing at no extra cost to standard care, new research published in The Lancet Psychiatry suggests.

The study led by Gill Livingston, Professor of Psychiatry of Older People at University College London in the UK, found that family caregivers receiving the START (STrAtegies for RelaTives) program were seven times less likely to develop clinically significant depression than those given usual care, with benefits lasting for at least two years.