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Background: Most studies about the problems and needs of schizophrenia carers included only one care-giving relative, usually the patients' mothers., Methods: 101 mothers and fathers of the same patients suffering from schizophrenia were included into this study. Their needs were assessed by means of the "Carers' Needs Assessment for Schizophrenia"., Results: Mothers reported significantly more often problems than fathers concerning stress due to earlier life events and burn-out. Mothers needed interventions such as individual psychoeducation or family counselling more than twice as often as fathers. Overall, mothers reported higher numbers of problems and needs for intervention than fathers. The number of mothers' problems was predicted by not living with a partner and by a shorter duration of the patients' illness. The number of mothers' needs was predicted by more psychiatric symptoms, not living with a partner and a shorter duration of the patients' illness. Among fathers we could not identify any predictors, neither for the number of problems nor for the number of needs., Conclusions: Fathers and mothers often report problems and frequently need professional support. Overall, mothers exhibited more problems and needs for interventions than fathers. The differences between mothers and fathers indicate the importance of considering the carer's gender in clinical work.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the burden of minor relatives of schizophrenia patients and of the needs for support for the relatives., Methods: 135 relatives of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders were assessed by using the "Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire" and the "Carers' Needs Assessment for Schizophrenia"., Results: 24.4% of the total sample (N=33) had minor (i.e. below 18 years) siblings (N=18) or children (N=15). If the patient had minor siblings, almost the half of the adult relatives reported moderate or severe problems. However, among those patients who had to take care for minor children, only a fifth reported moderate or severe problems. Among the patients' offsprings being under the age of 16 behavioural disturbances, reduced appetite and other consequences of the disease were reported frequently., Conclusions: These results indicate that patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders often have minor relatives in their family frequently suffering from marked burden.

Background: A variety of interventions are available to support the caregivers of dementia patients. For the purposes of service planning, we developed an instrument to assess the needs of these caregivers and to determine whether needs are met. The reliability and validity of this new instrument was also investigated., Methods: The development of the Carers' Needs Assessment for Dementia (CNA-D), was based on in-depth interviews and a focus group. The combined inter-rater and test-retest reliability was investigated among 45 dementia caregivers. Correlations of the CNA-D with the Zarit Burden Inventory were used to analyze concurrent validity. Content validity was investigated by performing a separate survey among 40 caregivers and 40 professionals., Results: The CNA-D is a semi-structured research interview including 18 problem areas. For each problem area, the CNA-D offers several possible interventions. The relevance of the problem areas and the interventions (content validity) was confirmed by most of the study participants. Significant positive associations were found between the total score of the Zarit Burden Inventory and the number of problems and the number of unmet needs according to the CNA-D. The agreement between the interviewers was "excellent" (kappa above 0.75) in 73.7% of the problem areas and in 69.9% of the interventions., Conclusions: The CNA-D is a valid and reliable instrument for comprehensively assessing the needs of dementia caregivers.

Several authors have pointed out that in the next few decades dementia will affect a considerably increasing number of the elderly. To our knowledge there exist no calculations of the number of demented persons for the whole European region. We made calculations on the number of dementia cases for the period 2000-2050 based on the population projections of the United Nations. For this purpose, we used the results of several meta-analyses of epidemiological studies. The number of prevalent dementia cases in the year 2000 was 7.1 million. Within the next 50 years, this number will rise to about 16.2 million dementia sufferers. The number of new dementia cases per year will increase from about 1.9 million in the year 2000 to about 4.1 million in the year 2050. Contrarily, the working-age population will considerably decrease during the next 50 years. In the year 2000, 7.1 million dementia cases faced 493 million persons in working-age. This equals a ratio of 69.4 persons in working-age per one demented person. Until the year 2050, this ratio will decrease to only 21.1. Thus, the financial and emotional burden placed by dementia on the working-age population will markedly rise.

Because of the increasing life expectancy it is generally assumed that the number of demented individuals will steeply rise in the next decades. Dementia is a main reason for requiring extensive nursing care. Therefore, estimations of the future number of demented subjects in Austria are necessary for planning appropriate services. Since the age structure of the Austrian population has already changed during the last decades, the development of the number of demented individuals during the last five decades is compared with the estimations for the next five decades. These estimations are based on the population projections for Austria and on all available international meta-analyses of prevalence and incidence surveys. Estimations of the number of people suffering from dementia and of those developing dementia within one year are presented for the period between 1951 and 2050. In 1951, the number of dementia sufferers was 35,500; by 2050 this number will increase to 233,800. At present, 90,500 elderly people with dementia live in Austria. Thus, in the next decades, the number of people suffering from dementia will rise more steeply than the in the past. If the projected life expectancy leads to a prolonged duration of illness the number of dementia sufferers will be markedly higher. On the other hand, the working force will decrease in the next decades. Therefore, while in 1951 there were 120 employable persons per demented person, in 2050 there will be only 17 employable persons per demented person. Extensive planning of the future care of demented people is an urgent necessity.