“Actual problems of biophysical medicine”
(12-15 May 2016, Kiev, Ukraine).
ABSTRACT
Dore Giuseppe (1), D’Onofrio Marinella (2),
(1)MD Neurologist, Free Lance Sassari; e-mail: dottordore@tiscali.it
(2)MD Neurologist, AOU Sassari; e-mail: marin.donofrio@gmail.com
Introduction
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in elderly. A potential strategy for dementia is Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST). It is gaining increasing importance Learning tasks can be used for cognitive rehabilitation to improving frontal functions of dementia patients encouraging to use the top-down approach Demented people although improvement seems transient and does not exceed a three months follow-up. We present the results obtained using a new model of long-term CST and the follow-up at 7 years.
Method
A small sample of subject with diagnosis of mild to moderate dementia was submitted to CST: each patient attended an individual setting for 18-24 months, twice a week. CST involved a wide range of activities to stimulate thinking, reasoning, memory and specifics hand gestures. A 7 years follow-up post-treatment was carried out.
Results
The daily living improvement registered by the caregivers at the end of treatment was confirmed in the cognitive assessment concerning most of the cognitive functions. The hypo-perfusion revealed by 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT strikingly changed after treatment. Substantial stabilization in the cognitive tests was recognized at 7 years follow-up.
Conclusions
The results obtained seem very encouraging in that: a wide cognitive reserve seems available in dementia. CST efficacy seems related to quality of the material used and length of treatment. Although the present results needs confirmation in a wider sample of patients, they strongly suggest that in these patients, targeted complex cognitive psychological therapies may lead to a long-lasting benefit of cognition and quality of life.
Da Freud a Dore.
