APPLICATION OF THE UNIFIED PROTOCOL FOR THE TRANSDIAGNOSTIC TREATMENT OF EMOTIONAL DISORDERS TO FAMILY CAREGIVERS OF PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIA

Informal care of people with dementia is a source of chronic stress for caregivers. Pearlin's Multidimensional Stressor Model argues that, in addition to overload, caregivers experience a variety of cross-cutting clinical symptomatology derived from caregiving, with depression and anxiety as frequent emotional disorders. Although there are some interventions that show good results in the treatment of specific clinical problems, they are insufficient to simultaneously address the great clinical variety that befalls caregivers. Thus, it is considered necessary to explore effective treatments to intervene on the transversal basis of the emotional affectation of this group. One proposal would be the Unified Protocol for the transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders, designed by David Barlow, whose raison d'etre lies in the treatment of the shared basis and common processes of emotional disorders.