The use of music at home reduces symptoms of dementia and caregiver distress

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAs Alzheimer’s disease progresses, neuropsychiatric symptoms, particularly those common in the middle stages of the disease can be increasingly stressful for family caregivers. Music‐based interventions, when personalized and added to daily caregiving routines, have been shown to reduce occurrences or severity of these undesirable symptoms. In this study, family caregivers learned to implement music interventions to mitigate the impact of challenging behaviors.MethodWe present the results of interim analyses of the results for the first group of participants in a study of a psychoeducational, music‐based intervention for family caregivers. Eighteen NYC‐based family caregivers participated in a 6‐week program either in person (pre‐COVID) or online with a music therapist. Following each weekly one‐hour workshop, caregivers were asked to utilize music interventions such as singing during care, listening to personalized playlists on Spotify, or facilitating music and movement with their care recipient. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory‐Questionnaire was used to measure twelve neuropsychiatric domains and measure caregiver distress before and after the 6‐week intervention. Paired sample t‐tests were used to measure change in these outcomes for caregiver and care recipient. A Pearson correlation coefficient was used to estimate the relationship between symptoms of dementia and caregiver distress.ResultsThere was a significant improvement in both neuropsychiatric domains in care recipients from before (M= 12.23 ± 6.26) the six‐week program to after (7.83 ± 3.51), p =.028, and in caregiver distress prior (M=14.88 ± 9.36) to after (8.68 ± 5.95), p =.03. The symptoms most reported to contribute to caregiver distress were irritability (n=12), night‐time behaviors (n=12), and agitation (n=11). Neuropsychiatric symptoms and caregiver distress were found to be strongly correlated, r (16) =.64, p=.004.ConclusionPreliminary results of this ongoing study indicate that caregivers who implement music‐based interventions can both reduce undesirable symptoms of dementia and thereby their own distress.