Dementia Caregivers and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Systematic Review
Dementia Caregivers and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Systematic Review

Summary/Abstract: Dementia is seen in increasing numbers, and people diagnosed with dementia need other people’s care. Caregivers are generally family members of the person and may experience psychological difficulties and may need psychological help. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) based interventions applied to family caregivers of people with dementia. In order to review CBT based interventions for family caregivers of people with dementia, researches published between 1990-2020 in EBSCHOHost (including Medline), Web of Science and Cochrane (including PubMed and Embase) databases were scanned. These screening and reporting were carried out in accordance with the PRISMA Statement used in reporting systematic reviews. In the first identification, 819 studies were obtained. When repeated studies were excluded, considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 20 studies were included for this review. It was determined that CBT based interventions can be applied individually and as a group, and these applications can also be carried out face-to-face, via telephone and the Internet. Although the duration, frequency and evaluations of the sessions differ in the studies, it is seen that CBT interventions have positive contributions to family caregivers of people with dementia, dementia patients receiving care, and communication between them. When evaluated in general, it is concluded that CBT is effective for family caregivers of people with dementia. The findings of the studies were discussed in the light of the related literature and suggestions were made for future studies.

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