Authors' objectives:

The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), based at the University of York was commissioned by the Parkinson’s Disease Society to undertake a scoping review to map the available evidence on interventions for carers. The aim is to provide an overview of existing research on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for non-professional carers of people with Parkinson’s disease. The results of this scoping review can be used to inform decisions about research priorities. The map of the existing literature aims to enable the Parkinson’s Disease Society to focus resources on areas that currently do not have a strong evidence base and would benefit from further research.

Authors' recommendations: This scoping review indicates that some research has recently been dedicated to the evaluation of psychosocial interventions for non-professional carers of people with Parkinson’s disease. However, researchers appear to have only just begun to think about the clinical and the cost-effectiveness of interventions for carers. There is currently very little information available to show which interventionswill effectively support carers in their role of caring for a person with Parkinson’s disease. There is considerable scope for future research on the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for carers of people with Parkinson’s disease. Few interventions have been studied and these have mainly been examined with research methods that do not provide conclusive evidence on the effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of the interventions. High quality research, employing appropriate and rigorous research designs and involving carer samples large enough to detect effects is warranted. This overview of the available evidence, along with other existing research relating to comparable carer groups, can inform future decisions about research funding priorities.

Authors' methods: Review

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/CRD_Reports/crdreport37.pdf

Year Published: 2007

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: England

Organisation Name: University of York

Contact Address: University of York, York, Y01 5DD, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 1904 321040, Fax: +44 1904 321041,

Contact Name: crd@york.ac.uk

Contact Email: crd@york.ac.uk

Copyright: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD)