title: Prolonged grief in caregivers of community-dwelling dementia patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the frequency of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in 90 primary caregivers of patients with dementia who live in the community dwelling in Milan and to identify the relationship between grief intensity (GI) and other caregiver variables; another aim was to clarify the role of the objective cognitive and functional impairment of the patients and the level of deterioration perceived by caregivers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all, 16.7% of caregivers had PGD. Caregiver variables increasing GI and the risk of developing PGD were burden, anxiety, and some sociodemographic features. The objective level of patient's deterioration was irrelevant for PGD probability/GI, while the deterioration level perceived by the caregiver increased PGD probability and GI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Caregivers of patients with dementia may experience grief symptoms that are associated with low educational level, high level of burden and anxiety, and high perceived deterioration of their demented relatives' cognitive and functional abilities.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuropsychology Center, Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital, Milan, Italy serena.passoni@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Passoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toraldo
authors.affiliation: AIMA Milano Onlus, Italian Association of Alzheimer Disease, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Villa
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuropsychology Center, Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital, Milan, Italy Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bottini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: caregivers; dementia; perceived deterioration; prolonged grief disorder