Karen Barrett
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias affect more than six million adults over 65 in the United States, and most of their day-to-day care comes from family members. As the disease progresses, behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia such as agitation, anxiety and depression are common.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
agitation
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2030
What they work on
- Standardize a prototype improvisation music therapy intervention designed for the pair of a person living with dementia and their care partner, using the NIH Stage Model and Science of Behavioral Change frameworks.
- Evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of delivering the dyadic improvisation music therapy intervention, using mixed-methods design that combines qualitative and quantitative measures.
- Conduct a pilot study testing whether stress reduction and emotion regulation are mechanisms linking the intervention to fewer behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia and lower caregiver burden.
- Measure well-being and burden outcomes in family care partners alongside symptom outcomes in the person with dementia, to generate the data needed to design a fully powered randomized trial.
More about the research
These symptoms are hard on the person who has them and a major source of stress and depression for the care partner. Music-based interventions are effective non-drug options that can reduce these symptoms and ease caregiver stress, but most existing programs treat only one member of the pair at a time, not both together.
Why it matters
Families caring for someone with dementia face agitation, anxiety and depression in the person they care for and high stress in themselves, with few non-drug options that help both at once. A standardized dyadic improvisation music therapy intervention, if feasible and acceptable, could give clinicians a treatment aimed at the pair rather than one person, and the pilot results may clarify how music therapy works, potentially improving quality of life for both members.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ronald Acierno
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Psychology
Select and support two to three pilot projects each year that develop behavioral interventions for elder mistreatment at stages 0–2 of the NIH Stage Model for Behavioral Intervention Development.
Kalisha Johnson
Emory University, GA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Examine how behavioral, sociocultural and environmental factors shape formal care decisions and quality of life among African American people living with dementia and their adult daughter caregivers, using dyadic data analysis.
Antoinette Coe
University of Michigan, MI·Public Health & Epidemiology
Determine the individual and organizational factors needed to adapt the Community Care Transition Initiative for rural older adults with dementia, through semi-structured interviews and direct observations with people with dementia, care partners, community health workers, agency staff and providers.
The school
University of California-San Francisco: 89 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 164 research doctorates a year.
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