2013 AAGP Annual Meeting

to be helpful by three quarters of patients (75% for driving), and by approximately 9 out of 10 caregivers (91% for hospice care)and health care professionals (89% for advance care planning). These findings suggest the potential merits of future researchaimed at developing, testing, and implementing standardized decision aids for complex decisions made over the course ofAlzheimer’s disease.

Poster Number: EI 51Psychodynamic group psychotherapy versus body awareness intervention: a study on the effect ofinterventions on the burden of family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s diseaseAna Costa, Msc; Dorli Kamkhagi, PhD; Sandra Kusminsky, Psychologist; Paulo Canineu, PhD; Orestes Forlenza, PhD;Deborah Supino, Physioterapist; Alice Lewi, Psychologist; Ingrid Politi, Psychologist; Breno Diniz, PhD

University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Introduction: Family caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients suffer from high burden of care and depressive symptoms.The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the body awareness intervention versus group psychodynamicpsychotherapy to improve burden of care and depressive symptoms, as well as the impact on quality of life of family caregiversof patients with Alzheimer’s disease.Methods: Forty family caregivers were included in this study. They were allocated to receive psychodynamic group psycho-therapy (n ¼ 20) or body awareness intervention (n ¼ 20) for a total of 14 sessions. Outcome measures included the scores onthe Zarit Burden Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Body Awareness Questionnaire, WHOqol Scale.Results: Family caregivers on the body awareness intervention group showed a significant improvement of the burden of care(p¼0.001), body consciousness (p¼0.04) and on quality of life (p¼0.01). There was no improvement on depressive symptoms (p¼ 0.13). Those on the psychodynamic group psychotherapy showed a significant improvement on burden of care (p¼0.01),depressive symptoms (p¼0.005) and quality of life (p¼0.002). There was no significant effect on burden of care (p¼0.16).Conclusions: Body Awareness and psychodynamic group psychotherapy are effective to reduce burden of care and improvequality of life in AD family caregivers. These interventions were selective to improve depressive symptoms (psychodynamicpsychotherapy) and improve body awareness (body awareness intervention). These interventions can be complementary toimprove depression and burden of care in family caregivers of AD patients.

Poster Number: EI 52Proposed Assessment of Depression in the Caregivers of Older Adults in a Home Health SettingAmy Shah, MD1,2; Muhammad Aslam, MD1,2; Christopher Rowe, MD1,2; Mya Sabai, MD1,2; Lisa Gray, MD1,2

1University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH2Veterans’ Administration Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH

Introduction: To a psychiatrist, it is common knowledge that elderly white male patients have increased risk for suicide. At theCincinnati Veteran’s Administration Medical Center we are treating American veterans with this in mind. The great majorityof veterans are male though many women are entering the military. Aging veterans also have many medical comorbiditieswhich further contribute to depression and increased risk of suicide. It has been established that the bio-psycho-social modelcan explain many risk factors which may predispose veterans to mental illness. We, as humans, are fallible; there is no fool-proof way to assess for depression and suicide in the older adult. The VAMC does have many programs and services to aid theseveterans and lessen the burden of mental illness on them. One of those is Home Based Primary Care or HBPC in which a teamof physicians and nurses visit the homes of the elderly patients. Caregivers of these patients are enlisted to help monitorbehaviors and medications. These are generally family members, often frail elderly women, who may have limited access tomedical care. For the caregivers of cognitively impaired patients with depression the VAMC has less to offer. Counselingthough available depends on the caregiver to come forward and vocalize depression or feelings of ineffectuality. A better way ofreducing caregiver distress might be to find those who are at high risk and proactively offer help. This proposal aims to identifycaregiver depression and distress and correlate that with depression and other identifiers in the patient in order to finda commonality among those at risk. What we offer in this poster is a simple proposal for new research which might be easilyreplicated in other settings with geriatric patients. Its positive qualities and drawbacks will be discussed as a focus of thispresentation.

Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 21:3, Supplement 1 S99