Caregiver burden in dementia care: Prevalence and health effects

Abstract

Caregiving stress is caused by both primary stressors (care recipient characteristics) and secondary stressors (family and work issues), and depends on the caregiver’s evaluation of the balance between demands and his or her ability to meet them. The types of burdens caused by caregiving are developmental, physical, social, emotional, and time dependence. Psychiatric consequences of caregiving include high incidence of depression and anxiety disorders. Physical consequences are caused by chronic stress that results in activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and impairment of immunologic functions. Caregiving stress does not end by institutionalization of the care recipient and continues even after the care recipient’s death.