A study of psychological aspects of families living together with senile dementia.

Senile dementia is irreversible and runs a relatively chronic course, causing physical emaciation and psychological burden to families who must take care of senile dementia at home. However, there has been no report concerning a psychological study of families with senile dementia. Therefore, the psychological aspects of them were examined. Concerning the results, most caretakers of Alzheimer-type dementia with markedly associated psychiatric symptoms showed notably neurotic and depressive tendencies. By family parameters, these tendencies were strongly observed in families of caretakers alone. These results suggest that an expansion of local medical care, specifically geared to the home, is required, and more attention needs to be paid to the psychological aspects of caretakers.