A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that patients with dementia are more likely to die if their caregivers have poor mental health.
The findings demonstrate that caregiver health, and mental health in particular, should be taken very seriously by doctors treating patients with dementia. Thankfully, medications are available for depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and other mental health disorders, and physicians should not hesitate to treat them.
The researchers aren’t exactly sure why caregiver mental health appears to have such a pronounced effect on patient mortality, but they suspect that poor mental health may damage social bonds between patients and caregivers, which are known to lead to worse health outcomes.
Access the paper by clicking here.