Music, Pets Recommended to Soothe Dementia Patients

Music, pets and aromatherapy should be used to calm agitated or delusional patients before turning to drugs that often prove ineffective or have unhealthy side effects, researchers said on Tuesday.

After evaluating 29 studies dating to the mid-1960s, researchers at Wake Forest University said “it was discouraging to find that we currently don’t have good drug therapies (for dementia-related behaviors).” Dementia is usually associated with memory loss, but at least 60 percent of patients also suffer such symptoms as agitation, aggression, delusions, hallucinations, repetitive vocalizations and wandering, said lead researcher Kaycee Sink. “Dementia-related behaviors are very distressing to both caregivers and medical professionals,” and often leads to the patient being placed in a nursing home, she wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The report analyzed data on more than 15 drugs commonly prescribed for dementia symptoms, including antipsychotics, antidepressants and mood stabilizers. In a drug class called atypical antipsychotics, the drugs resperidone and olanzapine had the best record of effectiveness but both had potentially unhealthy side effects, the report said. Resperidone is sold under the brand name Risperdal by Johnson & Johnson and olanzapine is sold as Zyprexa by Eli Lilly and Co . Better treatments for dementia are needed as the U.S. population ages and the numbers of cases and costs escalate, the report said. Improved training of caregivers is also needed, it said. Small studies have shown music therapy, aromatherapy and pet therapy may be effective in calming patients, and should be tried first before drugs are prescribed, the report said.(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association: Reuters Health: February 2005.)