Loss of control, self-blame, and depression: An investigation of spouse caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients.

Tested several predictions derived from the reformulated learned helplessness (RLH) depression model developed by L. Y. Abramson et al (see record 1979-00305-001) and from recent critiques of that model, in a longitudinal study of spouses caring for a husband or wife with Alzheimer's disease. During initial interviews, 68 caregivers (aged 37–85 yrs) rated the uncontrollability of important upsetting events related to their spouse's disease and were scored on an index of internal–external causal attribution (CATN) for those events. In addition, at both the initial and follow-up interviews (n?=?38) about 10 mo later, caregivers were rated for depression, anxiety, and hostility. Results indicate that the indices of loss of control and CATN were more consistently related to depression than to anxiety or hostility, although hostility was related to CATNs. Correlations of the loss of control and CATN variables with depression remained significant after controlling for a measure of the spouse's objective disability. In hierarchical regression analyses, perceived loss of control and its interaction with CATN significantly predicted follow-up depression after controlling for initial depression. The interaction showed that loss of control combined with an internal attribution predicted higher depression than did either one alone. The importance of including specific uncontrollable events when studying the RLH model is emphasized. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)