title: Personality of the caregiver influences the use of strategies to deal with the behavior of persons with dementia.
abstract: Personality of family caregiver is an important factor influencing the caregiver's burden, depression and distress. We now hypothesized that the personality is associated with specific strategies used by family caregivers to deal with the behavioral and psychological symptoms of demented relatives (BPSD). Participants were 98 consecutive persons with dementia and their family caregivers. Assessments included: Personality (NEO-FFI), Burden (ZBI), Depression (CES-D), Cognitive Function (MMSE), BPSD (NPI), Distress (NPI-D), and an open question to identify the strategies used by caregivers when faced with BPSD. Caregivers used different strategies to cope with their relatives' behavior: avoiding conflict; confronting; reassuring; orienting; responding coercively; distracting; colluding; medicating and restricting the movements. Extraversion was the only dimension of caregiver's personality that determined the use of caregiver strategies to deal with BPSD. Extroverted caregivers used the "confronting" strategy less often. Caregiver's personality should be taken into account when designing adapted intervention programs.
authors: Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Lisboa, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: graca.melo@esel.pt.
authors: Graça
authors: G
authors: Melo
authors: ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Portugal.
authors: João
authors: J
authors: Maroco
authors: Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Lisboa, Unidade de Investigação & Desenvolvimento em Enfermagem, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.
authors: Marta
authors: M
authors: Lima-Basto
authors: Laboratório de Neurociências e Serviço de Neurologia, Instituto de Medicina Molecular e Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.
authors: Alexandre
authors: A
authors: de Mendonça
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D001519:Behavior; D010054:Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Behavior; Caregiver; Dementia; Personality; Strategies