Effectiveness of structured group reminiscence therapy in decreasing the feelings of loneliness, depressive symptoms and anxiety among inmates of a residential home for the elderly in Chittoor district

Abstract

Background: The proportion of the elderly population is increasing in low and middle-income countries. Apart from systemic illnesses, elderly people face mental illnesses. Effect of group reminiscence therapy in reducing some of the mental health aspects showing a promising effect but the evidence is lacking in Indian settings. The present study aimed to determine the effect of reminiscence therapy in decreasing the level of loneliness, depressive symptoms, and anxiety among the elderly population at an institutional level.Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, residents of an old age home were evaluated for loneliness, depressive symptoms and anxiety through revised UCLA, geriatric depression scale, and Geriatric Anxiety Scale respectively. Group reminiscence therapy was applied to them and post-intervention assessment was done by the same scales.Results: Significant reduction of anxiety score [1.33 (0.03, 2.64)] was noticed in anxiety. Depressive symptoms showed a mean reduction in score [0.59 (-0.41, 1.6)] but statistically not significant. When graded into severity, all three outcomes showed improvement from higher severity grade to lower grade in post-intervention assessment. The intervention resulted in an improvement of 66.7% in depressive symptoms, 33.3% in anxiety and 30.8% in loneliness.Conclusions: The study found reminiscence therapy could be encouraging in resource-poor Indian settings. We recommend for further exploration of the long-term effects of this program, its feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and validation of the content for large-scale implementation.

Depression and Cognitive Impairment in Institutionalized Older Adults

“…However, studies of older people affected by psychiatric or neurologic pathologies lack representativeness and, therefore, do not allow for extrapolating their results to the general population of older adults. Longitudinal studies examining depression over time provided a variety of findings associated with reducing depression following treatment [50], oscillating between no effect and complete change of cognitive deficits [1].…”

<p>The Iranian Protocol of Group Reminiscence and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Institutionalized Older People</p>

“…This result was inconsistent with many reports. 24,31 To explain this finding, it can be said that most of the participants (88%) were illiterate and had to do manual and physical works such as agricultural and animal husbandry occupations to earn incomes, and therefore the physical chronic pain continues to increase with age. To reduce this contradictory issue, it might be better to provide suitable conditions and facilities such as non-invasive pain relief techniques and rational coping in nursing home centers.…”

“…Tarugu et al considered group reminiscence to improve the general health of older adults, living in nursing homes and believed that this method would recover the physical and social functions. 31 To explain this finding, reminiscence is usually a conceptual method for examining and reviewing life events and a psychological process, where past events and occasions are discussed. 14,26,30 Finally, the comparison of the overall scores of healthrelated QoL indicated that the evidence-based protocol for an 8-week group intervention could suggest beneficial values for participants.…”

“…[32][33][34] This can partially explain that reminiscence may extend interpersonal communications, provide an opportunity to express positive and negative feelings towards the past, reconcile with the present, improve the career and family relationships, focus on high-quality interactions, and provide a supportive and relaxing environment. [27][28][29][30][31]35,36…”

The Role of Old Photos in Reminiscence Therapy in Elderly Women With Depressive Symptoms: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

“…Nurses can implement the latter independently (Lin et al, 2003), allowing the elderly patient to review both good and bad experiences over their entire life and then develop more positive attitudes that may help them maintain good mental health. There is ample evidence that reminiscence therapy is an effective tool for reducing DS in the elderly (Pinquart & Forstmeier, 2012;Tarugu et al, 2019). Authors of a systematic review found that it was an effective nondrug intervention to alleviate depression in the elderly (Apostolo et al, 2016).…”