A cognitive behavioural group therapy for patients diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and their significant others: Feasibility and preliminary results

Contains fulltext : 70618.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility and present preliminary results of a cognitive behavioural group therapy for patients with mild cognitive impairment and their significant others. DESIGN: One group pretest-posttest design. SUBJECTS: Twenty-two patients with mild cognitive impairment and their significant others, running in four group programmes. INTERVENTION: The main goal of the cognitive behavioural group therapy was to strengthen adaptive behaviour in 10 weekly 2-hour sessions. MAIN MEASURES: Distress and mood: The RAND-36, Geriatric Depression Scale--short form; Acceptance and helplessness: Subscales Acceptance and Helplessness from the Illness Cognition Questionnaire; Marital satisfaction: Maudsley Marital Questionnaire; Alertness to memory failure and behaviour changes: Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly and the Revised Memory and Behaviour Problems Checklist Burden. The burden of caregiving reported by the significant others: Sense of competence Questionnaire and Behaviour Problems Checklist Burden, Hindrance subscale. RESULTS: No changes were found on distress and mood measures in both patients and their significant others. Patients showed a significant increased level of acceptance (P<0.05) and a trend for an increased marital satisfaction (P<0.1). The significant others reported an increased awareness of memory and behavioural problems (P<0.05). Attendance was high, indicating a high motivation for this intervention. CONCLUSION: Preliminary results show evidence for positive changes after a cognitive behavioural group therapy for patients with mild cognitive impairment and their significant others. In addition, the developed programme is applicable and feasible. The programme's effectiveness should be studied further, with an estimated sample size of 70 couples in a controlled study design.10 p

Mild Cognitive Impairment

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a heterogeneous disorder, is frequently diagnosed by geriatricians and neurologists and is a hot topic in research. MCI refers to cognitive impairment that is worse than would be expected on the basis of age but which does not meet the criteria for dementia. The diagnosis is based on the patient history and an interview with an informant, preferably supplemented with objective tests to establish the cognitive status of the patient. MCI is an important risk factor for the development of dementia: annually 5-15% of patients with MCI develop dementia. There is currently no treatment for MCI, but it is important to treat possible organic factors. For now, it is important for the general practitioner to know the background of diagnosed MCI or reported mild cognitive problems, and to support and guide patients and their relatives. There is no added benefit to the general practitioner making the diagnosis.</p

Conceptualisation of self-management intervention for people with early stage dementia

Dementia is a major challenge for health and social care services. People living with dementia in the earlier stages experience a "care-gap". Although they may address this gap in care, self-management interventions have not been provided to people with dementia. It is unclear how to conceptualise self-management for this group and few published papers address intervention design. Initial focusing work used a logic mapping approach, interviews with key stakeholders, including people with dementia and their family members. An initial set of self-management targets were identified for potential intervention. Self-management for people living with dementia was conceptualised as covering five targets: (1) relationship with family, (2) maintaining an active lifestyle, (3) psychological wellbeing, (4) techniques to cope with memory changes, and (5) information about dementia. These targets were used to focus literature reviewing to explore an evidence base for the conceptualisation. We discuss the utility of the Corbin and Strauss (Unending work and care: managing chronic illness at home. Jossey-Bass, Oxford, 1988) model of self-management, specifically that self-management for people living with dementia should be conceptualised as emphasising the importance of "everyday life work" (targets 1 and 2) and "biographical work" (target 3), with inclusion of but less emphasis on specific "illness work" (targets 4, 5). We argue that self-management is possible for people with dementia, with a strengths focus and emphasis on quality of life, which can be achieved despite cognitive impairments. Further development and testing of such interventions is required to provide much needed support for people in early stages of dementia