Abstract:

Objective To investigate the effect of multi-sensory stimulation intervention on the agitation of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Methods Patients from two wards of the department of psychiatry in a hospital were recruited in this study. The control group included 17 patients from one ward，while the treatment group included 18 patients from another ward. For patients in the treatment group，multi-sensory stimulation intervention were applied，including head touch，haptic-doll therapy，and music therapy. The pre-testing lasted for one week followed by eight weeks of formal intervention. To measure the effect of the intervention，Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory was used. Results After eight weeks of intervention，the agitation score of patients in the treatment group was（94.72±3.74），much lower than the score before intervention（112.33±4.97）. This difference reached statistically significant（P<0.05）. In addition，the agitation score of patients in the control group was（109.88±6.64）. Compared to the score of（111.59±6.86） before intervention，this difference was not significant（P>0.05）. Still，the agitation score of the treatment group after intervention was lower than that in the control group（P<0.05）. Conclusion Multi-sensory stimulation intervention is proved to be an effective approach to reduce and mitigate the agitation of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Key words: Alzheimer Disease, Psychomotor Agitation, Therapeutic Touch, Music Therapy, Doll therapy