A – 5 The long goodbye: anticipatory grief in family members of individuals with Alzheimer's disease

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to address during which stage of Alzheimer’s disease is anticipatory grief the highest in family members in order to determine the best time for intervention. We predicted that the earlier stages would lead to the greatest amount of AG. Method Participants were 21 relatives of individuals with a memory loss disease. Participants completed demographics, stage questionnaire, AG scale (Theut et al., 1991), and written response questions. To test for differences in AG between different stages and relationships, an independent sample t-test was conducted. Results There was no significant difference in AGS scores between relatives of those in middle and late stages (t19 = 0.517, p = 0.283). There was also no significant difference in the AGS scores between spouses and children (t15 = -0.029, p = 0.441). Main themes identified through written responses were: responsibilities taking away from time to grieve, reversal of roles, guilt, and ambiguous loss. The overall average AGS score was 75.76 (12.95), similar to previous studies where AD caregivers scored an average of 78.17 (14.85) on the AGS (Garand et al., 2012). Conclusion The written responses were similar to interviews from past research showing a strong sense of anticipatory grief across all participant experiences, which complements our results from the written responses that showed an overall experience of loss and signs of bereavement before death. Participants showed a great amount of anticipatory grief for the psychological loss of their loved one, demonstrating a need for support.