COVID-19 Crisis Effects on Caregiver Distress in Neurocognitive Disorder

Abstract

Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have mental health implications for both people with neurocognitive disorder and their caregivers. Objective: The study aimed to shed light on relations between caregiver mental reaction to the pandemic and caregiver distress related to neuropsychiatric symptoms, memory impairment progression, and functional impairment of people with neurocognitive disorder during the period of confinement in Greece. Methods: The study included caregivers of patients with mild (N = 13) and major (N = 54) neurocognitive disorder. The caregiver-based telephone interview was based on items of the neuropsychiatric inventory questionnaire, the AD8 Dementia Screening Instrument, and the Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale. Regarding the mental impact of the COVID-19 crisis on caregivers, four single questions referring to their worries in the last seven days were posed, in addition to the scales Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item (GAD-7) and the 22-item Impact of Event Scale-revised (IES-R). A stepwise linear regression model was employed for studying the relationship between caregiver distress and demographic and clinical data and caregiver mental reaction to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Results: Caregiver distress severity during the confinement period was influenced not only by memory deficits (p = 0.009) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (p < 0.001) of patients, but also by caregiver hyperarousal (p = 0.003) and avoidance symptoms (p = 0.033) and worries directly linked to the COVID-19 crisis (p = 0.022). Conclusion: These observations provide further evidence for the urgent need for support of caregivers of patients with neurocognitive disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evidence for Biological Age Acceleration and Telomere Shortening in Covid19 Survivors

“…Remarkably, during the SARS or MERS epidemics, neuropsychiatric symptoms have been reported in hospital workers and caregivers (11). A similar situation has been reported in hospital workers assisting COVID19 patients (12).…”

“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted April 27, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.23.21255973 doi: medRxiv preprint MERS epidemics, neuropsychiatric symptoms have been reported in hospital workers and caregivers (11). A similar situation has been reported in hospital workers assisting COVID19 patients (12). The COVID19 syndrome also compromises internal organs and apparatuses other than the nervous or cardiovascular systems, including the gastrointestinal tract.…”

Impact of COVID-19 on the Health and Well-being of Informal Caregivers of People with Dementia: A Rapid Systematic Review

“…The same study found that ICs of PWD with higher rates of resilience reported a significant increase in anxiety during the lockdown, suggesting that a pandemic can have a negative psychological effect even on mentally strong ICs. An additional study found that IC of PWD distress arose during the quarantine period, regardless of whether the care receiver’s neurocognitive symptoms changed ( Alexopoulos et al., 2021 ). This study also found increased IC anxiety symptoms were unrelated to the severity of their care receiver’s neurocognitive disorder.…”

“…IC’s distress during quarantine was influenced by memory deficits and neuropsychiatric symptoms ( Alexopoulos et al., 2021 ). Caregiver’s symptoms of depression and anxiety also increased as the length of time in isolation increased ( Mazzi et al., 2020 ).…”

Impact of Confinement in Patients under Long-Term Noninvasive Ventilation during the First Wave of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A Remarkable Resilience

“…For patients under home noninvasive ventilation (HMV) for chronic respiratory failure (CRF), confinement blocked access to elective procedures, such as routine follow-up visits dedicated to assessing efficacy of treatment and adequacy of settings, and compromised the feasibility of treatments provided at home such as rehabilitation or chest therapy. It also created anxiety not only among patients with chronic disorders but also among relatives, caregivers, and health-care workers [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ] due to the high risk of infection but also because the activity of our public hospital was totally diverted to the care of COVID-19 patients.…”