Abstract

Background: Apathy is associated with greater caregiver burden and affects the cognitive abilities of the patient. Having a high prevalence of more than 71% in patients with dementia (PwD), it is a very common symptom in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). In many cases it remains under-diagnosed or is misdiagnosed with depression.

Methods: This study is a cross-over randomized controlled trial with 60 participants conducted in Greece. The participants were randomly assigned in 6 different groups of 10 participants each. The interventions that were evaluated are: a) Body Exercise (BE), b) Reminiscence therapy (RT) and c) Music therapy (MT). The interventions lasted for 5 days and there was two days off, as a wash-out period. There was no drop-out rate. The measurements which were used at baseline were: MMSE, ACE-R, GDS, FRSDD and NPI questionnaires.

Results: The most effective combination was in order: RT- BE- MT. RT when applied in the first week reduced apathy statistically significant (p = 0.007). BE when applied in the second week reduced the symptoms further (p = 0.013) and MT when applied in the third week reduced apathy even more (p = 0.027). We had about the same results with the caregivers’ burden following the same order of interventions: RT (p = 0.006)- BE (p = 0.016)- MT (p = 0.030).

Conclusion: A combination of a cognitive intervention (RT) in the first week, followed by BE the second week and a sensory intervention (MT) the third week, can reduce apathy in PwD and their caregivers’ burden, as well.

Keywords: Apathy; BPSD; Dementia; Cross-over Trial; Non-pharmacological Interventions; RCT; Reminiscence Therapy; Body Exercise; Music Therapy

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Citation

Citation: Dimitriou Tatiana-Danai., et al. "Non-pharmacological Interventions for the Apathy in Patients with Dementia. A Cross-over Randomized Controlled Trial". Acta Scientific Neurology 4.2 (2021): 62-69.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Dimitriou Tatiana-Danai., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.