A lack of knowledge exists in the Netherlands concerning the problems in family caregiving to the demented elderly. These problems will continue to increase in the near future. The research on dementia as burden for the family and developed intervention strategies will be reviewed in this paper. Two concepts of dementia as burden are described: an anticipating mourning concept and a burden-coping concept. The results of this research and several methodological problems will be analysed. Directions for future research are given.