Musical and Photographic Stimulations on the Symptomatology of Alzheimer’s Disease in Elderly

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and neurodegenerative disorder characterized by deterioration of brain functions. Psychosocial interventions such as music and photographic stimuli may contribute to cognitive and sensory exercise or rehabilitation. Objective: Evaluate musical and photographic stimuli in elderly people with Alzheimer’s disease. Methods: It is an uncontrolled clinical trial, before-after type, eleven subjects composing the sample. Participants were submitted to Katz Index, Autobiographical Memory Test, GDS-15, Mini-Mental State Examination. The collection instruments were used on the first and last day of intervention, individually. There were 2 sessions in the week with duration of 50 minutes totaling 20 sessions. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics and as variables expressed as mean standard deviation. Results: There was a significant effect of cognitive activity (P , it was observed that a small advance (P = 0.05) of the daily life activities. With the analysis of GDS-15, it is verified that they are more effective for the increase of the previous self-estimation of the therapy (P = 0.94). In the application of the AMT, it is observed that there was a better recruitment of the memory for the neutral words. Conclusion: Musical and photographic stimuli had a positive effect on the cognitive level, daily life activities and autobiographical memory in seniors with Alzheimer’s disease.