P4-413: The evidence-based alternative therapeutic intervention for dementia patients

Abstract

Dementia is a longstanding progressive degenerative illness limited by the general pharmacotherapy. Even though several alternative therapeutic trials for Dementia patients have been attempted, systemic evidence–based clinical research is rare. Our aims were to assess the evidence–based effect of alternative therapeutic intervention such as music and art therapy, aromatherapy and reminiscent stimulation and were to investigate the validity of those as alternative therapeutic strategies of patients with dementia. We assessed 102 patients with Alzheimer's and vascular dementia. Among them, forty patients received well designed Music therapy (MT) 4 times per week for 2 months, and 35 patients received Art therapy(AT) by same strategy. Each session was performed about 40 minutes. Twelve patients received aromatherapy using 2% lavender oil twice a day for 14 days. Twenty five patients received reminiscent film stimulation. We evaluated devised short–formed clinical assessment tools included several tests related to language and memory functions, visuospatial function for music and art therapy group. We also evaluated Pittsburg agitation scale (PAS) and NPI score for aromatherapy group and cerebral blood flow for reminiscent stimulation group. In MT group, phonemic word fluency was significantly improved (p<0.005) without improvement in MMSE and semantic word fluency. In AT group, MMSE score, immediate and delayed visual recognition were significantly improved at 6 weeks after (p<0.05). In aroma therapy group, PAS and NPI score were significantly decreased at 7 days (p<0.05) but showed increasing tendency after then. In reminiscent stimulation group, the cerebral blood flow was significantly increased (p<0.05). Our results suggest that the various alternative therapeutic interventions can affect cognitive function and behavior of dementia patients in different ways by their specific characteristics. Music therapy improves phonemic fluency and executive functions, especially on frontal cognitive functions and art therapy improves visual recognition. Aromatherapy can be applicable as a transient BPSD control tool. Reminiscent stimulation can be applicable to nonpharmacologic therapy as a neuronal reactivation tool.