The effect of a balance model for early psychological intervention on anxiety and depression in caregivers of the elderly / 中国职业医学

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of a balanced model for early psychological crisis intervention on anxiety and depression in caregivers of the elderly. METHODS: A convenience sampling method was used to select 234 caregivers for the elderly as the study subjects. A random number table method was used to divide them into a control group(116) and an intervention group(118). The control group was given conventional psychological crisis intervention; the intervention group received a balanced model for early psychological crisis intervention on the basis of conventional psychological crisis intervention. The anxiety and depression scores of the two groups were investigated before and after the intervention using the Anxiety Self-Rating Scale and Depression Self-Rating Scale, respectively. RESULTS: The anxiety scores of the control group were(43.0±6.8) and(40.1±6.3), and the depression scores were(45.4±12.0) and(42.7±11.4), before and after the intervention, respectively. The pre-and post-intervention scores were(43.5±6.5) and(38.4±5.6) for anxiety and(46.9±6.0) and(39.8±5.6) for depression in the intervention group, respectively. Before the intervention, the anxiety and depression scores of the 2 groups were compared separately, and the difference was not statistically significant(all P>0.05). In the control group, only the anxiety score was lower than the pre-intervention score(P<0.01); in the intervention group, both the post-anxiety and post-depression scores were lower than the pre-intervention scores(all P<0.01). After the intervention, the anxiety and depression scores of the caregivers in the intervention group were lower than those of the control group, respectively(all P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The balanced model for early psychological crisis intervention can effectively alleviate anxiety and depression in caregivers of the elderly.