DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS OF ALZHEIMER CAREGIVERS ARE MAINLY DUE TO PERSONAL RATHER THAN PATIENT FACTORS

The contribution shows the results of a research program about the processes of the families that have inside themselves a relative suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. A quantitative study conducted on a sample of 125 caregivers and it analyses, following a multi-factorial approach, the caregiving process in order to verifies the relationship between patient’s conditions (the primary stressors) and the presence of stress and depressive symptoms in the caregiver (the outcomes). Our analysis shows that this relationship is modulated in very important way by two elements of family functioning: the cultural orientation and the familiar control. The former carries out a protective function towards the stress; the latter has a “trigger function” towards the level of depression in the caregivers.