The Effects of Reminiscence Group Therapy on Agitated Symptoms and Quality of Life in Elders with Dementia

• Main Authors: Fang-YuHsu, 許芳瑜
• Other Authors: Jing-Jy Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/54608845779759520720

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 護理學系 === 102 === The Effects of Reminiscence Group Therapy on Agitated Symptoms and Quality of Life in Elders with Dementia Author: Fang-Yu Hsu Advisor: Jing-Jy Sellin Wang Department of Nursing ＆ College of Medicine SUMMARY Agitated symptoms of dementia caused by illnesses or environment often make caregivers exhausted and frustrated mentally and physically. Many clinical experts and scholars believe that the use of non-pharmacological complementary therapy in patients with dementia should be prior to the use of medication. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to apply and evaluate short and long-term effects of group reminiscence on agitated symptoms and quality of life for patients' with dementia. Subjects were residents with mild to moderate dementia recruited from five long-term care facilities in southern Taiwan. Totally 40 subjects completed the study. All subjects were assessed by demographic data, CMAI, MMSE, and QOL-AD Scale one week before and after and three months after the intervention. Results showed subjects’ overall agitated symptoms did not significant change. Two agitated symptoms wandering and “akathisia” had significant decrease. To analyze data by mild and severe agitation groups, results showed that in severe agitation group, wandering and “akathisia” showed significant change. The overall and mild agitation group quality of life showed significant difference. Findings of this study indicated that reminiscence therapy is beneficial to the decrease of wanderingand akathisia behaviors and the improvement of quality of life for patients with dementia. Key words: reminiscence group therapy, dementia, agitated symptoms, quality of life INTRODUCTION The rapid growth in the population of dementia has become a global problem in many countries. Patients' agitated symptoms of dementia caused by illnesses or environment often make caregivers exhausted and frustrated mentally and physically. Many clinical experts and scholars believe that the use of non-pharmacological complementary therapy in patients with dementia should be prior to the use of medication. Reminiscence therapy is one of them. Taiwanese literature on reminiscence therapy for dementia emphasizes on how to improve patients' overall cognition and emotion; few focused on patients with agitated symptoms and quality of life. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to apply and evaluate short and long-term effects of group reminiscence on agitated symptoms and quality of life for patients' with dementia. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a single group with repeated measure design; purposive sampling was used. Subjects were residents with mild to moderate dementia recruited from five long-term care facilities in southern Taiwan. Totally 40 subjects completed the study. Subjects received reminiscence therapy session once weekly for ten continuous weeks, each was 50 minutes in length. All subjects were assessed by demographic data, Chinese version of the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory(CMAI), Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE), and Quality of Life-Alzheimer’s Disease(QOL-AD)Scale one week before and after and three months after the intervention. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Results showed that after receiving the group reminiscence, subjects’ overall agitated symptoms did not significant change (P=0.81), yet two agitated symptoms wandering had long-term significant decrease (P=0.007), and “akathisia” had short-term significant decrease (P=0.002). To analyze data by mild and severe agitation groups, results showed that in severe agitation group, wandering (P=0.000) and “akathisia” (P=0.003) showed significant long-term positive change. In addition, the overall quality of life showed significant difference (P=0.000), the effect can last to the end of the twelfth week after reminiscence therapy. Quality of life improved significantly in mild agitation group (P=0.000), the effect can last to the end of the twelfth week after reminiscence therapy. CONCLUSION Findings of this study indicated that reminiscence therapy is beneficial to the decrease of wanderingand akathisia behaviors and the improvement of quality of life for patients with dementia. It can be widely applied to clinical practice. Results of this study can be references for professional or non-professional caregivers when managing the above agitation behaviors. Also it is a measure to improve quality of life for this group of patients.