Smartphone-Based Training to Help Unpaid Caregivers Manage Emotions for People with Alzheimers Disease or Related Dementias

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are studying unpaid primary caregivers of persons with Alzheimers Disease and related dementias ADADRD to test a new, smartphone-based cognitive emotion regulation training. The aim is to improve psychological outcomes like reducing stress, caregiver burden, and depressive symptoms, and to explore potential benefits for the care recipients quality of life. This Phase I, Stage I clinical trial evaluates two emotion regulation strategies psychological distancing and reinterpretation, compared to a control group with no regulation training. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups distancing training, reinterpretation training, or a no regulation control group. Each participant receives a brief, one-week intervention delivered via smartphone with structured training sessions conducted by experimenters over videoconference. The interventions focus on teaching caregivers how to change their emotional responses using either distancing viewing emotional events objectively or reinterpretation imagining better outcomes. Follow-up assessments occur at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 3 months after the initial training. During the study, caregivers will complete self-reported assessments of positive and negative emotions, perceived stress, caregiver burden, depressive symptoms, and quality of life. Heart rate variability HRV data is collected remotely using a pre-mailed chest strap device. Researchers will also gather daily ecological momentary assessments through smartphone prompts to track emotional states and stress levels. The study lasts several months with multiple evaluations to understand how the training affects psychological and physiological health in caregivers and care recipients.

Smartphone-based Cognitive Emotion Regulation Training for Unpaid Primary Caregivers of Persons With Alzheimer's Disease