Couples Coping With Alzheimer's Disease

September 19, 2007 updated by: Alzheimer's Association

A Randomized Control Trial of an Intervention for Couples Coping With Alzheimer's Disease

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a new couples counseling intervention for people recently diagnosed with early Alzheimer's disease and their spouses. The study hypothesis is that counseling the couple shortly after the diagnosis, and while the functional impact of the illness is still relatively mild, will have a significant impact on their ability to provide support for each other.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The majority of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) live at home with their spouses. AD erodes the ability of each member of the couple to support each other. Moreover, couples may be unaccustomed to seeking or accepting emotional and practical support from family members or formal resources. Even though AD can have a major negative impact on each member of the couple and on their relationship, their needs have generally been addressed separately, often without sufficient appreciation for the importance of their ongoing relationship. Previous studies suggest that by improving support for both members of the couple, the intervention will have a positive effect on mental health outcomes such as depression and help keep the person with AD at home rather than in a long-term care facility.

One hundred couples will be randomly assigned either to an immediate treatment group or a wait-list control group which will receive treatment four months after enrollment. Participants will receive a formal baseline assessment, consisting of a structured set of questionnaires to assess dyadic (couple) adjustment, social support, depression and anxiety as well as goals for counseling. There will be two follow-up assessments, 2 and 4 months after baseline using the same instruments. All participants will be able to call a counselor for the duration of the study to obtain resource and referral information or in the event of a crisis. The treatment will consist of 6 sessions of couples counseling within a 2-month period. The focus will be on helping each member of the couple to express feelings, needs and issues that have emerged between them as a result of the diagnosis.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

200

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10016
        • Recruiting
        • Aging and Dementia Research Center, Silberstein Institute, NYU School of Medicine
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

21 years to 90 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Couples, in which one partner has been diagnosed with AD and is in the mild stage of the disease
  • Ages 21 to 90

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Severe psychological or physical illness
  • Unwillingness to participate in all aspects of the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
depression
Changes in dyadic (couple) adjustment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Level of anxiety
satisfaction with social support

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Alzheimer's Association

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Mary S. Mittelman, DrPH, NYU School of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

November 1, 2004

Study Completion (Anticipated)

November 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 21, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 21, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

February 22, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 20, 2007

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 19, 2007

Last Verified

September 1, 2007

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IA0103
  • ZEN-04-1011

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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