Effect of Cognitive Empathy Training on Dementia Caregivers
Emory University
118 participants
Feb 13, 2025
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
The goal of this project is to investigate the effect of cognitive empathy training on mental health, inflammation, and immune function in caregivers of people living with dementia (PLWD), and to examine the underlying psychological and neurobiological mechanisms. The primary aim is to establish the effectiveness of cognitive empathy training in improving caregiver mental health and immune function, and in decreasing caregiver inflammation The secondary aim is to investigate the psychological and neurobiological mechanism by which cognitive empathy training improves caregiver well-being
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria6
- Caregivers must live with their care recipient
- Caregivers must have a Zarit Burden Scale score of 19 or higher
- Caregivers must have no plans to move their care recipient to an institutional setting within the next year
- Caregivers must be able to read and write English
- Care recipient not in hospice
- Access to a mobile phone that can take and email photographs
Exclusion Criteria4
- Subjects with a history of seizures or other neurological disorders, alcoholism, or any other substance abuse
- Subjects with a history of psychiatric illness (excluding depression and anxiety disorders) will also be excluded
- Subjects with a history of head trauma based on Survey
- Subjects with MRI contra-indications
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Interventions
Participants will engage in a mentalization activity by captioning photos of their care recipients, reflecting on what the care recipient might be thinking or feeling. Over 10 days, caregivers will take 3-5 daily pictures of their care recipient and caption each with descriptive text representing the recipient's inner voice. This task encourages caregivers to consider the care recipient's perspective and motivations behind their behavior or emotional experiences. Photos will be shared securely via encrypted email. Utilizing accessible smartphone technology, the study allows caregivers to capture and reflect on meaningful moments with their care recipients
In the control condition, participants will be asked to take 3-5 daily photographs of nature over 10 days. They will be asked to caption each photo with a description of what they see. This exercise will involve many of the same activities as the cognitive empathy training, except that participants will not be mentalizing or taking the the perspective of their PLWD or anyone else.
At their initial study visit, participants will provide a blood spot sample for measurement of C-reactive protein, pro-inflammatory cytokines and Epstein-Barr virus antibody titers.
In this study, caregivers will be positioned in a Siemens Trio 3T MRI scanner for functional imaging. They will view images of their care recipient care recipient, other similar care recipients care recipient, and photographs of friends or family members, pressing a button each time they see their care recipient care recipient's photo to monitor attention. The task involves viewing eight photos of four individuals with happy and neutral expressions, followed by rest periods. This sequence repeats five times, with each stimulus presented for 5 seconds and inter-trial intervals of 2, 3, or 4 seconds, totaling 11 minutes and 15 seconds. A subsequent 10-minute diffusion-weighted scan will assess brain white matter integrity, using 60 diffusion directions. All scans will be completed within 40 minutes.
Locations(3)
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NCT06650527