Addressing Emotional Distress in Dyads of Persons With a Young Onset Dementia (YOD) and Their Care-partners

Conditions

• Young Onset Dementia

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - 65 Years

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• Resilient Together-YOD — BEHAVIORAL
  This is a 6 session dyadic (patient and spousal care-partner) intervention that teaches resiliency and interpersonal communication skills early after YOD diagnoses. It aims to decrease heightened symptoms of depression and anxiety among dyads to help them engage in important decisions around long term care-planning and optimize adjustment. The goal is to equip dyads with the necessary skills to cope and engage in meaningful, challenging conversations around care-planning, symptom deterioration, work/family planning to improve well-being in both members of the dyad.
• Health Enhancement Program-YOD — BEHAVIORAL
  This is a 6 session program that will deliver educational information to dyads and will mimic the dose and duration of Resilient Together. The program will not teach any individual and dyadic interpersonal skills, but will contain education on psychological distress and healthy behaviors. Sessions will also be delivered virtually.

Study Details

The purpose of the present investigation is to test the efficacy of a virtual, brief (6 sessions) dyadic (patient and care-partner together) intervention to prevent chronic emotional distress in dyads where one person is diagnosed with Young Onset Dementia (YOD). Through this study, we seek to address the unmet need of preventing chronic emotional distress in YOD dyads through a feasible, acceptable and credible program, and ideally enhance resiliency and improve wellbeing and quality of life in both members of the dyad.

Key Dates

Start date

Jan 28, 2026

Status verified

Apr 2026

Primary completion

Jul 1, 2030

Completion

Jan 1, 2031

Study Design

Enrollment

388 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Arms

• Experimental: Experimental: Experimental Patient-Caregiver Dyads
  There will be 6 sessions delivered via live video using Zoom. Content will be primarily skills.
• Active Comparator: Control Patient-Caregiver Dyads
  There will be 6 sessions delivered via live video using Zoom. Content will be primarily educational.

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in Emotional Distress [ Time Frame: 0 weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks ]

Central Contacts

• Ana-Maria Vranceanu, PhD
  617-724-4977
  [email protected]
• Maggie L Syme, PhD, MPH
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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