Longitudinal assessment of psychotherapeutic day hospital treatment for neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia

Abstract

A psychotherapeutic day hospital program designed for older people with dementia and neuropsychiatric symptoms allows for a significant reduction of anxiety and apathy, better adhesion to therapeutic community treatment and clinical progress in group therapy. Controlled interventional studies are needed to further confirm these data.

Adult day services: A service platform for delivering mental health care

“…There are also some early indications that group and individual therapeutic approaches can be effective in ADS, particularly in managing behavioral and psychological symptoms Notes: AOR, adjusted odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; and ns, not significant. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. related to dementia (Weber et al, 2009).…”

Activity interventions to improve the experience of care in hospital for people living with dementia: a systematic review

“…Table 1 reports on the study and participant characteristics. Of the six included studies one was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) [36], two were time series studies [37,38], two were uncontrolled before-after studies [39,40], and one was a prospective cohort study [41]. All included studies were journal articles and published between 2009 and 2018.…”

Individual and group psychotherapy with people diagnosed with dementia: a systematic review of the literature

“…Although well-being was improved compared to usual care, there was no significant change in other outcomes variables. A level III repeated measures study by Weber et al (2009) found significant improvements in anxiety and apathy after combining pharmacological treatment, group therapies (music, movement and psychodynamic), individual and family therapies with people with dementia referred to a Day Hospital.…”

“…Importantly, there is a need to develop a more nuanced understanding of those elements of therapy that help people affected by dementia to change or, equally relevantly, not to change. This would help to identify those generic factors that are common across different forms of therapy-such as how people manage shame and stigma, or how fears of a loss of internal control are contained (Cheston, 2015). Thus, arguably, the most significant impact of psychotherapy in work with people affected by dementia resides not in doing therapy, but in helping everyone involved in dementia care to be more therapeutic.…”