{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,17]],"date-time":"2026-10-17T03:07:46Z","timestamp":1792206466984,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,24]],"date-time":"2022-02-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1645660800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Brain Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Caregivers of patients with early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease (EOAD) experience higher level of burden, stress, and depression, due to premature role changes and social isolation. Moreover, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic compelled restrictions regarding social interactions and mobility in Italy from March 2020, prompting telemedicine approaches for supporting patients and their families confined at home. We reported our experience regarding the effects of psychological phone-intervention (phone-I) on EOAD caregivers during pandemic. Twenty caregivers of EOAD patients were randomly assigned to treatment (TG) or control (CG) group. TG weekly underwent a phone-I for one month. All participants were assessed for caregiver burden and needs, anxiety and depression levels, and subjective impact of traumatic events at baseline (T0), at the fifth week (T1) and after 6 months (T2) from phone-I. We observed higher vulnerability to post-traumatic stress in TG compared to CG in all timepoints (p \u2264 0.05). Decreased stress effects and caregiver burden were revealed in TG at T1 compared to T0 (p \u2264 0.05), although showing an increase of these measures at T2 in the treated caregivers. Our findings suggest that although TG showed a peculiar vulnerability to post-traumatic stress, they showed increased wellbeing immediately after phone-I. However, this benefit disappeared six months later, along with the second infection wave, probably due to \u201cexhaustion stage\u201d achievement in \u201cGeneral Adaptation Syndrome\u201d. This trend may suggest a beneficial but not solving role of a prompt phone-I on burden of caregivers of EOAD patients during the SARS-CoV-2 emergency.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci12030310","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,24]],"date-time":"2022-02-24T21:11:07Z","timestamp":1645737067000},"page":"310","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Effects of Phone-Based Psychological Intervention on Caregivers of Patients with Early-Onset Alzheimer\u2019s Disease: A Six-Months Study during the COVID-19 Emergency in Italy"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Manuela","family":"De Stefano","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"First Division of Neurology, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0853-3461","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabrina","family":"Esposito","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"First Division of Neurology, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alessandro","family":"Iavarone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CDCD AORN \u201cOspedali dei Colli\u201d\u2014CTO, 80131 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michele","family":"Carpinelli Mazzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CDCD AORN \u201cOspedali dei Colli\u201d\u2014CTO, 80131 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5246-2109","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mattia","family":"Siciliano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"First Division of Neurology, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daniela","family":"Buonanno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"First Division of Neurology, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Danilo","family":"Atripaldi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"},{"name":"\u201cTieni A Mente\u2014TAM\u201d Association, San Giorgio a Cremano, 80046 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3790-8018","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesca","family":"Trojsi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"First Division of Neurology, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gioacchino","family":"Tedeschi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"First Division of Neurology, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Campania \u201cLuigi Vanvitelli\u201d, 80138 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101205","DOI":"10.1016\/j.arr.2020.101205","article-title":"Aging in COVID-19: Vulnerability, immunity and intervention","volume":"65","author":"Chen","year":"2021","journal-title":"Ageing Res. 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