Marriage and attachment in Alzheimer’s Disease: implications for treatments

This article presents an overview of the role of attachment in the couple’ relationship in presence of a partner with Alzheimer’s Disease. The diagnosis of Alzheimer Disease has profound repercussions on the individual and family system. The first objective of this report is to discuss literature on the association between Alzheimer Disease and couple’s relationship, through the lens of attachment perspective. The usefulness of attachment framework is proposed for a deeper understanding of couple functioning in presence of AD. The methodology used was a systematic search on electronic databases for published literature. A detailed search of the databases was conducted for articles published between January 1st 1993 and October 10th 2013: MEDLINE (via Pub Med), PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES (via EBSCO). It is shown that promising studies from the attachment perspective can be useful for the understanding of marital relationship in presence of AD. Finally, the interlacement among attachment, caregiving and sexuality systems in the couple managing this diagnosis is proposed.