Lockdown and Mental Health in Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Abstract: We asked 44 French and 42 Lebanese participants with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) who lived in their own homes to rate their depression and anxiety during the late fall/early winter 2020 lockdown and compared their responses. We also asked caregivers to quantify the frequency of visits that participants received from family members during the lockdown. We found higher levels of depression and anxiety in French than in Lebanese participants as well as lower frequency of visits to French than Lebanese participants. Interestingly, we observed negative correlations between depression/anxiety levels and frequency of visits in the two populations. The higher depression and anxiety levels in French than in Lebanese participants may result from fewer opportunities for communication with family members.