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World J Psychiatry. Jan 19, 2022; 12(1): 59-76
Published online Jan 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i1.59
Depression among caregivers of patients with dementia: Associative factors and management approaches
Si-Sheng Huang
Si-Sheng Huang, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan
Author contributions: Huang SS designed the study and interpreted the data, drafted the article and approved the final version of the article to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interest relevant to this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Si-Sheng Huang, MD, Attending Doctor, Director, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Changhua Christian Hospital, No. 135, Nanhsiao Street, Changhua 500, Taiwan. 97278@cch.org.tw
Received: March 31, 2021
Peer-review started: March 31, 2021
First decision: July 15, 2021
Revised: July 29, 2021
Accepted: November 30, 2021
Article in press: November 30, 2021
Published online: January 19, 2022
Processing time: 292 Days and 18.7 Hours
Abstract

As elderly people increasingly come to represent a higher proportion of the world’s population, various forms of dementia are becoming a significant chronic disease burden. The World Health Organization emphasizes dementia care as a public health priority and calls for more support for family caregivers who commonly play a significant, central role in dementia care. Taking care of someone with dementia is a long-term responsibility that can be stressful and may lead to depression among family caregivers. Depression and related behavioral and cognitive changes among caregivers could in turn affect the status and prognosis of the dementia patient. This review article explores depression in dementia caregivers and summarizes proposed mechanisms, associated factors, management and research findings, and proposes future research directions.

Keywords: Dementia; Depression; Caregiver; Caregiver burden; Activities of daily living; Functional status

Core Tip: The prevalence of depression among caregivers of patients with dementia is higher than that of the general population. The cause of depression in caregivers is complicated and thought to be related to the patients, caregivers and cultural backgrounds. Multifaceted treatment for depression is regarded as the current mainstream clinical intervention. In some areas, supplementation with smart technology for interventions to alleviate the burden and depression of caregivers could be considered. There are also some ideas and directions for future research included in the conclusion section of this review.