For caregivers who deal with patients or family members with dementia, the physical and emotional stress they experience puts them at great risk for anxiety, depression and death. A new Northwestern Medicine study found that teaching happiness skills to those who routinely interact with people with dementia improved their health and lessened their symptoms of anxiety and depression, according to a University release.

Researchers hope the new method is accessible and affordable to informal caregivers, which does not require a licensed therapist to learn.

“Nationally, we are having a huge increase in informal caregivers,” said Judith Moskowitz, a Feinberg professor and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Health Psychology.

“People are living longer with dementias like Alzheimer’s disease, and their long-term care is falling to family members and friends,” she added. “This intervention is one way we can help reduce the stress and burden and enable them to provide better care.”

Caregivers were told to practice eight skills, such as recognizing a positive event from the day and journaling about it, listing personal strengths or doing a daily 10-minute breathing exercise.

In the trial, 170 dementia caregivers were assigned to two different groups — one group learned the emotional skill set, practiced it and completed questionnaires about their mental health as they implemented the suggestions, while a control group did not learn the method but filled out the same questionnaires.

Those who participated experienced a 7 percent drop in depression symptoms and a 9 percent drop in anxiety symptoms. While those in the control group exhibited mild to moderate depression, those in the intervention group, on average, reached average national levels of depressive behavior.

“The caregivers who learned the skills had less depression, better self-reported physical health, more feelings of happiness and other positive emotions than the control group,” Moskowitz said.

There are about 5.5 million Alzheimer’s patients in the United States; with the life expectancy post-diagnosis being eight to 10 years, caregivers take on large emotional and physical burdens that can last years.

The level of interest showed Moskowitz just how important research into caregiver health is — she is launching a new study to compare the effectiveness of the intervention technique when self-administered online rather than through a facilitator.

Considering their stress levels, Moskowitz was surprised so many caregivers were able to participate in the study.

“They are such a stressed, burdened group,” Moskowitz said. “But they were engaged and committed, which speaks to how much they need programs like this.”

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