a Psychology Department , Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Bedford VAMC , Bedford , MA 01730 , USA.
Aging Ment Health. 2018 May;22(5):595-602. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2017.1286457. Epub 2017 Feb 17.
Caregivers (CGs) for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) often experience negative mental health and relationship outcomes. Additionally, emotional perception abilities are often compromised in early AD; the relationships between these deficits and CG outcomes are unclear. The present study investigated the relationship between emotional perception abilities in AD participants and CG well-being.
Participants included 28 individuals with AD, their spousal CGs, and 30 older controls (OCs). Patients and controls completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and Advanced Clinical Solutions: Social Perception subtest. CGs completed questionnaires related to relationship satisfaction, burden, depression, and patient neuropsychiatric symptoms and activities of daily living.
The patient group performed significantly worse than OCs on measures of cognition and emotional perception. Several significant relationships emerged between AD participant emotional perception and CG outcomes. Higher CG depression was associated with greater overall emotional perception abilities (r = .39, p = .041). Caregiver burden was positively correlated with AD participants' ability to label the emotional tones of voices (r = .47, p = .015). Relationship satisfaction was not significantly correlated with emotional perception.
This study replicated earlier findings of impaired emotional perception abilities in AD participants. However, preserved abilities in emotional perception were associated greater CG depression and burden. Interestingly, the CGs satisfaction with the marital relationship did not appear to be influenced by changes in emotional perception. Higher emotional engagement among couples in which one spouse has cognitive impairment may contribute to increased negative interactions and in turn a greater sense of burden and depression, while leaving the marital relationship preserved.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者的照料者（CGs）经常经历负面的心理健康和人际关系结果。此外，早期 AD 患者的情绪感知能力经常受到损害；这些缺陷与 CG 结果之间的关系尚不清楚。本研究调查了 AD 患者的情绪感知能力与 CG 幸福感之间的关系。
参与者包括 28 名 AD 患者、他们的配偶 CGs 和 30 名老年对照组（OCs）。患者和对照组完成了蒙特利尔认知评估和高级临床解决方案：社会感知子测验。CGs 完成了与关系满意度、负担、抑郁以及患者神经精神症状和日常生活活动相关的问卷。
患者组在认知和情绪感知方面的表现明显逊于 OCs。AD 参与者的情绪感知与 CG 结果之间出现了几个显著的关系。较高的 CG 抑郁与整体情绪感知能力呈正相关（r =.39，p =.041）。CG 负担与 AD 参与者辨别声音情绪音调的能力呈正相关（r =.47，p =.015）。关系满意度与情绪感知没有显著相关性。
本研究复制了早期 AD 患者情绪感知能力受损的发现。然而，情绪感知能力的保留与 CG 抑郁和负担增加有关。有趣的是，CG 对婚姻关系的满意度似乎不受情绪感知变化的影响。在配偶认知障碍的夫妻中，较高的情绪投入可能会增加负面互动，进而增加负担和抑郁感，同时保持婚姻关系。
