Recent findings on nonpharmacological therapies in Alzheimer’s Disease: New hope for patients?

Pol, T. van der (2017) Recent findings on nonpharmacological therapies in Alzheimer’s Disease: New hope for patients? Bachelor's Thesis, Biology.

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Abstract

Worldwide, nearly 44 million people have Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or related dementia (Alzheimer statistics 2016). This number is expected to triple during the coming 35 years (Prince et al, 2016). AD has a progressive character and is associated with cognitive decline and several neuropsychological disturbances like agitation, anxiety and depression. Quality of life (QoL) decreases in AD. The medication that is currently available is symptomatic and is limited to delaying the progression of symptoms with several months (Qaseem et al., 2008) Nonpharmacological interventions are being studied intensively and evidence for the effectiveness of these therapies is growing. Several different nonpharmacological therapies have been proposed to reduce cognitive, psychosocial and behavioural alterations in AD patients, but also to improve motor impairment, quality of life and so on (Gallego, 2017). The aim of this study is to describe the most recent studies that have investigated such a nonpharmacological therapy. Although some of the studies showed promising results, further research will be necessary to validate these results. Validations are necessary considering some studies did not include a control group and most studies had small sample sizes and were conducted in a short time interval. Furthermore, more attention must be paid to potential mechanisms of action and brain areas involved in certain therapies. Even though nonpharmacological therapies seem promising in improving QoL, cognition, motor-skills, awareness etc. it should be mentioned that it might be difficult to improve everyday functioning in AD patients.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Degree programme:	Biology
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2018 08:28
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2018 08:28
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/15273

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