Improvement for Dementia Patients!

As many as 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease across the globe (Alzheimer’s Association) and even more are affected with other types of dementia. The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society did a study on the effects of dance and movement therapy, also known as DMT, on Alzheimer’s and other dementia patients. The DMT intervention on the Alzheimer’s and dementia patients consisted of nine sessions that lasted about thirty to forty- five minutes each and the intervention also consisted of a control group that spent the same amount of time (thirty to forty five minutes) in nursing home activities. At the end of the study the dance and movement intervention group had improved slightly while the control group did not improve at all. The DMT group greatly improved in the tasks of visuospatial ability and planning whereas the control group remained unchanged. Visuospatial abilities include: stimulus recognition, mental rotation of objects, and determinations of relationships between stimuli (Community Transitions). There were no noticed or significant changes in memory in either group, but the dance movement therapy intervention group also showed large improvements in the areas of self-care and cognition. Self-care consists of daily tasks such as remembering to brush your hair or take your medications and cognition may include things such as perceiving, thinking, reasoning, and analyzing (Children’s Hospital of Boston).