Art Therapy Approaches in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Art therapy (AT) has been adopted in recent years as a possible non-pharmacological approach in older persons living with Alzheimer's disease (AD) to improve both cognitive and behavioral and psychological symptoms that accompany the disease. Our main aim was to conduct a systematic review of the methodological and practical effectiveness of different approaches using AT in older people living with AD. The systematic analysis of the studies finally selected (n = 12) suggests that the measures applied to evaluate the effectiveness of AT may not always be the most appropriate to assess the impact of this approach in this type of population, in many cases not being sufficiently sensitive to adequately capture all the significant changes produced by the intervention. Neurologically informed AT, as well as the use of biomarkers, could better identify and capture intervention-induced changes, being a step toward evidence-based practice in the application of this type of approach.

Mental Health on the Go: Navigating Travel and Travel Eligibility

“…Despite available treatments, the elusive nature of dementia’s origins results in inconsistent outcomes. Consequently, non-pharmacological approaches, such as art (Hodgson et al, 2023; Marco & Redolat, 2023; Shoesmith et al, 2022), music (Thompson et al, 2023), multisensory simulation (Solé et al, 2022), social activities (Mabire, Gay et al, 2022), and training (Klaming et al, 2023), are favored for their affordability and low side-effect profile (Bowman & Lim, 2022; Livingston et al, 2020).…”

Development of a Multidisciplinary Diploma on Art Therapy in Health Education—Research into Existing Practices in Jordanian Universities: The “HEALING” Project

“…The project consortium consists of partner universities from Jordan, Tunisia, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Croatia and its duration is three and a half years (2020)(2021)(2022)(2023). The project aims to design and develop a professional educational program (e-learning package) of Art Therapy to enhance the capacity of students and staff from health and psychology disciplines to tailor health plans for patients (children, adults, and elderly) with a wide range of health conditions, e.g., physical and emotional abuse, mental illnesses and disorders, autism, stroke survivors, Alzheimer, de-mentia, terminally ill patients, traumatic experiences of refugees (Alwledat et al, 2023;Chiang et al, 2019;Marco & Redolat, 2023;Park & Song, 2020;Partridge, 2022;Schouten et al, 2019;Schweizer et al, 2020). The goal of the project is to develop a multidisciplinary diploma on Art Therapy in Health Education and to establish Therapy Centers in Jordanian and Tunisian universities.…”