Abstract
Objectives: The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate an intervention aimed at increasing cognitive empathy, improving mental health, and reducing inflammation in dementia caregivers, and to examine the relevant neural and psychological mechanisms. Methods: Twenty dementia caregivers completed an intervention that involved taking 3–5 daily photographs of their person living with dementia (PLWD) over a period of 10 days and captioning those photos with descriptive text capturing the inner voice of the PLWD. Both before and after the intervention, participants completed questionnaires, provided a blood sample for measures of inflammation, and completed a neuroimaging session to measure their neural response to viewing photographs of their PLWD and others. Results: 87% of enrolled caregivers completed the intervention. Caregivers experienced pre- to post-intervention increases in cognitive empathy (i.e. Perspective-Taking) and decreases in both burden and anxiety. These changes were paralleled by an increased neural response to photographs of their PLWD within brain regions implicated in cognitive empathy. Conclusion: These findings warrant a larger replication study that includes a control condition and follows participants to establish the duration of the intervention effects. Clinical Implications: Cognitive empathy interventions may improve caregiver mental health and are worthy of further investigation.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 832-845 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Clinical Gerontologist |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2024 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Emory Roybal Center for Dementia Caregiving Mastery [National Institutes of Health P30AG064200]; the Emory University Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Research Center [National Institutes of Health P50AG025688]; and the Emory Center for Health in Aging. The work was supported by the,\u00A0Emory Roybal Center for Dementia Caregiving Mastery, Emory Center for Health in Aging, Emory University Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Research Center. This work was supported by the Emory Roybal Center for Dementia Caregiving Mastery [National Institutes of Health P30AG064200]; the Emory University Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Research Center [National Institutes of Health P50AG025688]; and the Emory Center for Health in Aging.
Keywords
- Anxiety
- burden
- fMRI
- inflammation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Health(social science)
- Clinical Psychology
- Gerontology
- Geriatrics and Gerontology