Caregiver Burden in Frontotemporal Dementia Compared to Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease

Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a debilitating illness that has particularly profound effects on caregivers because of the socioemotional impairment of the patients who are typically under age 65.  We studied 48 caregivers of the two most common neurodegenerative early onset dementias, bvFTD and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD).  Individuals with bvFTD exhibit severe impairment in socioemotional behavior, which impacts their relationships with their caregivers.  In contrast, EOAD sufferers exhibit  memory-related impairments that have a different impact on caregivers. Compared to the EOAD patients, the bvFTD patients had more socially-impairing psychiatric symptoms on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory and more emotional blunting on the Scale of Emotional Blunting.   Compared to EOAD caregivers, bvFTD caregivers reported greater burden on the Zarit Burden Interview with some of the most burdensome items involving social relationships.  Hence, in bvFTD caregiving, the burden goes beyond the usual tasks of caring for a dementia patient and includes coping with the impact of the characteristic social and emotional disturbances of bvFTD.  The findings of this study have implications on how to target effective support for the profoundly burdened caregivers of patients with bvFTD.  Support strategies for this disease need to be considered to address the differences in patient characteristics and caregiver need.