Effects of short‐term reminiscence therapy on elderly with dementia: A comparison with everyday conversation approaches

Abstract

Background: Recent research has demonstrated the usefulness of reminiscence therapy as a psychosociological approach to the care of the demented elderly. However, to date neither the variables (e.g. evaluation methods and the optimal number of therapy sessions related to this technique) have been established, nor have the differences between reminiscence and other verbal interventions been clarified. In the field of clinical and nursing care in which reminiscence therapy is undertaken, in order to facilitate the participation of as large a number of elderly people as possible, both short-and long-term courses of sessions are needed. The present study conducted five therapy sessions using closed groups. Mainly, a verbal fluency task was used to assess the efficacy of therapy. Method: The results of the five sessions that were conducted with a reminiscence therapy group (reminiscence group; n = 8 ambulant elderly women with Alzheimer's-type dementia) were compared with those of an everyday conversation group (conversation group; n = 8 ambulant elderly women with Alzheimer's-type dementia). Results: In the reminiscence group, there was a significant increase in the number of words recalled at the end of the fifth session compared with that recalled at the end of the first session. In addition, the number of words recalled increased significantly compared with that recalled by the conversation group. Furthermore, the interchanges through non-verbal communication between others in the group improved and a positive change in participants' everyday life circumstances was observed. Moreover, the participants in the reminiscence group reported that they enjoyed the sessions. Conclusions: Reminiscence therapy performed over a short period of time in closed groups was shown to be more effective than everyday conversations in the treatment of elderly people with dementia. It is suggested that the effectiveness of group reminiscence therapy should be ascertained not only by the verbal fluency tasks, but also by changes in patients' interactions with others through non-verbal communication.

Pet therapy in elderly patients with mental illness

“…There are several non‐pharmaceutical therapies for the elderly, including reminiscence therapy 13,14 and cognitive rehabilitation 15,16 …”

A quasi-experimental study of a reminiscence program focused on autobiographical memory in institutionalized older adults with cognitive impairment

“…In fact, reminiscence therapy among individuals with dementia is usually conducted in groups (Akanuma et al, 2011;Hsieh et al, 2010;Lalanne & Piolino, 2013;Wang, Yen, & OuYang, 2009). Studies about the use of reminiscence interventions found that it improves cognition (Akhoondzadeh, Jalalmanesh, & Hojjati, 2014;Cotelli et al, 2012;Tadaka & Kanagawa, 2007;Woods et al, 2005) decreases depressive symptoms (Chung, 2009;Hsieh et al, 2010;Wang, 2007), decreases behavioral symptoms (Akanuma et al, 2011;Hsieh et al, 2010;Huang, Li, Yang, & Chen, 2009;Wang et al, 2009;Woods et al, 2005;Yamagami, Oosawa, Ito, & Yamaguchi, 2007), promotes happiness (Okumura, Tanimukai, & Asada, 2008), enhances a positive mood (Cotelli et al, 2012;O´Rourke, Tobin, O´Callaghan, Sowman, & Collins, 2011;Woods et al, 2005) and facilitates communication (Huang et al, 2009;O´Rourke et al, 2011;Okumura et al, 2008).…”

“…The study was conducted in 4 different settings, with various routine activities equally available for both groups and so the only different intervention during this study was reminiscence sessions. Although some reminiscence studies opted to introduce a placebo intervention (e.g., Lai et al, 2004;Okumura et al, 2008;Serrani Azcurra, 2012), in our study design it would be difficult to perform an active intervention, such as social contact (Serrani Azcurra, 2012) in individual context, by the same therapist, without promoting reminiscence in the control group participants. For this reason, the reminiscence intervention was compared with a no treatment group, in line with previous investigations (Nakamae, Yotsumoto, Tatsumi, & Hashimoto, 2014;Woods et al, 2012).…”

Laughter and humor as complementary and alternative medicines for dementia patients

“…Treatment of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) remains one of the most unmet needs in psychogeriatrics [7,8], with more effective pharmacological [9,10] and non-pharmacological interventions [11-13] needed. Psychogeriatrics is, however, a clinical subspecialty in which treatment should be directed towards the person as a whole.…”