A total of 200 home dwelling participants, who fulfil the inclusion criteria, Alzheimer's disease, will be recruited from three hospitals in Norway. The intervention is based on a standardized manual, and consists of 11 weekly one-hour sessions, which are organized into six thematic modules. The content of each session is specified by a treatment manual, which additionally consists of worksheets, suggestions for homework in between sessions and letters to the caregivers (the German manual: Werheid \& Thöne-Otto, 2010; the Norwegian manual: Ulstein, Gordner \& Tonga, not published). The treatment will be conducted by experienced health staff (nurses, psychologist, doctors) with formal training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and knowledge about Alzheimer's Disease. Furthermore, the health staff will be familiarised with the manual before study inception, participate in a two-day training seminar and will regularly be supervised. The control condition will be offered treatment as usual at the participating the memory clinics. The hypothesis is that the participants in the intervention group will report less depression and increased self efficacy as compared with the control group. We conducted a pilot study with 10 patients, 5 in each group, from March to June 2013 to examine the feasibility of the study protocol and do want to include these patients in the study population.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
200
11 standardised weekly one-hour sessions/6 modules: Module one - introduction to the programme. Module two - pleasant activities to improve mood and depressive symptoms. Module three - the use of external memory aids to help the patients to maintain independence in their daily life. Module four - establishing behavioural routines to reduce demands on memory. Module five - stimulates patients to actively engage in reminiscence and memories to improve mood and well-being. Module six - review of the programme and individual treatment goals.
Oslo University Hospital
Oslo, Norway
Number of participants reporting decrease in depression scores
Depression, measured by the Montegomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) (Åsberg et al., 1978), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD) (Zigmond \& Snaith, 1983) and the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (Alexopoulos, Abrams, Young \& Shamoian, 1988). In addition MADRS will be used to measure depression in the carers.
Time frame: Up to nine month
Number of participants reporting increased Self-efficacy
Self Efficacy, measured by Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (Sherer et al., 1982) will be measured in the patients and carers.
Time frame: Up to 9 month
Number of participants reporting increased Quality of Life
Quality of life, measured by the Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease (QOL-AD) (Logdson et al., 1999)will be measured in the patients and carers.
Time frame: Up to 9 month
Number of participants reporting change in cognitive function
Neuropsychological tests, such as Mini Mental state examination (MMSE), Trial Making Test (TMTA and TKTB) and CERAD 10-word test, will be conducted. This test is widely used to evaluate the cognitive impairments required for the AD diagnoses.
Time frame: Up to 9 month
Number of participating caregivers reporting decreased burden of care
Overall burden in the carers, measured by The Relatives' Stress Scale (RSS) (Greene, Smith, Gardiner \& Timbury, 1982).
Time frame: 3 month and 9 month
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