Caregiver Burden in Different Stages of Alzheimer's Disease.

Abstract

With an increasing number of patients being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) daily, it has become one of the major problems in public health. The increase in the number of dementia patients in low- and middle-income countries is expected to be much more than that in developed countries. As a result, the economic burden of dementia, both worldwide and in Turkey, is growing. Moreover, AD leads to emotional burdens and psychological distress in family member(s) and caregiver(s) alongside the patient. Each stage of AD imposes different responsibilities on caregivers, increasing their burden. The suffering and emotional burdens of caregivers from these responsibilities lead to a decreased quality of life and disturbed body physiology. Incapacity, despair, weariness, and loneliness are the hidden emotions of this iceberg. This review aims to gather the results of studies on caregiver burden in different stages of AD, attract attention to those results that may have been ignored in Turkey, and shed light on the solutions required to overcome the problems in caregiving of AD patients.