With the advent of sensitive diagnostic procedures, Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias are being diagnosed in their earliest stages. Although early diagnosis provides opportunities for treatment, decision making, and planning, it also conveys some potentially negative consequences, including affective and interpersonal changes. Early-stage support groups for individuals with dementia and their caregivers have been developed to help individuals and their families cope with the psychological and social changes that the diagnosis brings. Although early studies provide anecdotal and qualitative support for the benefits of such groups, there have been few empirically based investigations of their efficacy. This article describes an ongoing randomized controlled clinical trial comparing early stage support groups with a wait-list control condition, and provides preliminary outcome data for participants and their family care partners. Results to date indicate improved quality of life and decreased family conflict following support group participation, indicating that this may indeed be a promising early-stage intervention.
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Logsdon et al. (2007) studied this question.