The experience of psychological distress in family caregivers of people with dementia: A cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the degree of psychological distress in family caregivers of people with dementia.

DESIGN AND METHODS: A nonprobabilistic sample of 54 dyads (people with dementia and family caregivers) was recruited. A sociodemographic questionnaire, the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the Barthel Index were used for data collection.

FINDINGS: About half of the caregivers had significant levels of psychological distress. Caregivers showed high scores in some BSI dimensions: somatization, obsessive-compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, and paranoid ideation.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Alleviating the caregivers' distress is likely to have positive effects on the overall health and capacity to care. Frameworks for providing palliative care to people with advanced dementia and support the caregivers would enhance the quality of care provided and may reduce the distress on the caregiver.