COGNITIVE STIMULATION OF PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIA - PRELIMINARY-RESULTS

We present the first results of a cognitive stimulation programme for patients with dementia. Fifty-six subjects entered a study involving t wo parallel, randomized groups. Assessment was blind for the main crit eria (neuropsychological tests). Twenty-nine patients were stimulated and were compared to 27 non-stimulated patients. The stimulated group attended 10 stimulation sessions over 5 weeks. Each group was assessed on the first and seventh week. Following stimulation, there was signi ficant improvement of Mini-Mental State (MMS) scores (p<0.01) and incr eased performance for the Word List Memory Test (one-tailed p = 0.09) in the Consortium to establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CER AD) battery. Verbal fluency remained unchanged. Stimulation tended to improve items of an additional battery (one-tailed p < 0.01). The comp osite sum of test scores showed a significant difference in favour of the stimulated group. These results were positively correlated with th e initial MMS scores and negatively with education. The Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scale did not show a significant change. We conclud ed that global stimulation of cognitive functions improves certain par ameters among demented outpatients.