Cognitive reframing for carers of people with dementia

Key findings used in wiki

• Cognitive reframing is a component of cognitive behavioral therapy that targets carers' maladaptive or self-defeating beliefs about their responsibilities, their own need for support, and why the person they care for behaves as they do — not the feeling itself.
• Pooled data across randomized controlled trials found a beneficial effect on carers' psychological morbidity: reduced anxiety (SMD -0.21), depression (SMD -0.66), and subjective stress (SMD -0.23).
• No effect was found on carers' coping, their appraisal of burden, their reactions to the care receiver's behaviors, or institutionalization outcomes — cognitive reframing changes how strain is carried, not how much of it there is.
• The authors conclude cognitive reframing may work best as one component of an individualized, multi-component intervention rather than as a stand-alone fix.
• Use this source only for the specific, scoped claim that cognitive reframing reduces psychological morbidity in dementia carers. Do not extend it to burden reduction, other conditions, or a guarantee of relief.