Quality of Life of Caregivers and Patients Suffering From Multiple System Atrophy

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder, which is characterized by a variable combination of parkinsonism, cerebellar dysfunction, autonomic failure, and additional signs. No effective treatment is available. MSA patients have a poor prognosis with a median survival ranging between 6 and 10 years. MSA as other neurodegenerative diseases cause profound declines in functioning ; thus, many patients require caregivers for assistance with daily living. Caregiving can also be extremely stressful, and many caregivers experience declines in mental health. All of these repercussions contribute to the deterioration of the caregiver's quality of life and they can have an impact on the patient, in particular, on the patient's survival. Improving quality of life is a major element and identifying effective targeted interventions would bring immediate and direct benefit to patients and their families. In this context, it seems that a multimodal intervention as proposed by the NYU Caregiver Counseling and Support Intervention (NYUCI) developed by Mittelman could contribute to improve disease management and better coping with daily living difficulties. The NYUCI strategy combines sessions of individual and family counseling, support group participation, and additional on-call telephone consultations in a flexible counseling approach that is tailored to each caregiving family