Non-drug Therapy Through Multisensory Stimulation for Patients with Severe Dementia: Multisensory Stimulation Lab (MS-Lab) Project
摘要
The goal was to test the effectiveness of a non-drug therapy through multisensory stimulation in patients with severe dementia. A total of 12 patients (M = 2, F = 10) attending the Ageing Evaluation Unit and Hearth Evaluation Unit of Fondazione IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy were included in this study and divided into 2 groups: 1) 6 patients allocated in Experimental group (EG), and 2) 6 patients allocated to control group (CG). All patients were assessed by Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Instrumental ADL (IADL), Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD), and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). No significant difference was shown between the groups. Only the CG patients were younger than EG patients. After 6 weeks of follow-up, there were significant improvements in EG patients with a very large and medium effect size for cognitive severity (SPMSQ: d = 1.29; MMSE: d = 0.69), very large effect size for affective and psycho-behavioral severity (CSDD: d = 0.89; NPI: d = 1.52), and huge effect size for caregiver distress severity (NPI-D: d = 2.04). Although not significantly compared to CG, the EG achieved a medium and small effect size for functional severity (ADL: d = 1.20; IADL: d = 0.57). In conclusion, multisensory stimulation improves the quality of life of dementia patients and their caregivers.