Effects of short‐term reminiscence therapy on elderly with dementia: A comparison with everyday conversation approaches

Abstract

AbstractBackground: Recent research has demonstrated the usefulness of reminiscence therapy as a psychosociological approach to the care of the demented elderly. However, to date neither the variables (e.g. evaluation methods and the optimal number of therapy sessions related to this technique) have been established, nor have the differences between reminiscence and other verbal interventions been clarified. In the field of clinical and nursing care in which reminiscence therapy is undertaken, in order to facilitate the participation of as large a number of elderly people as possible, both short‐ and long‐term courses of sessions are needed. The present study conducted five therapy sessions using closed groups. Mainly, a verbal fluency task was used to assess the efficacy of therapy.Method: The results of the five sessions that were conducted with a reminiscence therapy group (reminiscence group; n = 8 ambulant elderly women with Alzheimer's‐type dementia) were compared with those of an everyday conversation group (conversation group; n = 8 ambulant elderly women with Alzheimer's‐type dementia).Results: In the reminiscence group, there was a significant increase in the number of words recalled at the end of the fifth session compared with that recalled at the end of the first session. In addition, the number of words recalled increased significantly compared with that recalled by the conversation group. Furthermore, the interchanges through non‐verbal communication between others in the group improved and a positive change in participants' everyday life circumstances was observed. Moreover, the participants in the reminiscence group reported that they enjoyed the sessions.Conclusions: Reminiscence therapy performed over a short period of time in closed groups was shown to be more effective than everyday conversations in the treatment of elderly people with dementia. It is suggested that the effectiveness of group reminiscence therapy should be ascertained not only by the verbal fluency tasks, but also by changes in patients' interactions with others through non‐verbal communication.