The brain that dries up. The communication of Alzheimer's diagnosis : a narratives' study of relatives' representation

Objective: The aim of this project was to investigate the relative’s perspective of the moment in which the Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis was communicated. Methods: A qualitative methodology was employed. 20 semi-structured interviews were collected with the carers who were communicated the illness within 6 months-1 year from the start date of the project. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. The texts were analysed through an hermeneutic-interpretative approach. Results: Two main categories resulted to characterise the relatives’ perspective: 1) the recognition of ‘The story’, a long and articulate narration which comprehends: Before, Test, During, Today and Tomorrow; 2) the production of ‘Images’ (Me, The Others and The Alzheimer’s), that represent cues of undeveloped issues. Conclusion: Results suggest the importance of considering the complexity of the caregivers’ experience of illness in the process of care, and the opportinity to consider different communication skills in the different phases of care.