As the general population is getting older, more and more people are concerned by Alzheimer’s disease. As a matter of facts, 5% of the French population over 65 years old and 15% of the French population over 85 years old are concerned by it (Thomas M., 2011). Consequently, this most common form of dementia is definitely a major issue in our modern society. This involves new forms of medical care, new kinds of facilities and new interests in psychological science.
It is important to think about the issues linked to this illness. We tend to forget that an elder suffering from Alzheimer means a loss of autonomy that usually has consequences on the life of his or her relatives. Therefore, it is essential to take care of the whole family network of the patient. Most people think there will be a time when they won’t be able to communicate with their sick relative anymore.
Hence, a lot of new forms of therapy are being investigated in order to help patients maintain their autonomy and delay the effects of the illness. Among them, art therapy is being more and more developed. The idea is to use a medium to communicate with patients and/or enhance their creativity and expression. Music therapy, for instance, is used to help patients with Alzheimer’s disease express their emotions. Some scientific researches are currently being conducted in the whole world to evaluate the effects of that kind of therapy.
In Nantes, a team has worked in nursing homes in the past two years to collect data in the field of music therapy. In this context, two different groups of patients have been evaluated. The first one was participating to a music therapy session once a week for an hour. Basically, five to eight patients gathered around an “instrumentarium” (a selection of instruments) and communicated through improvisation, or listened to a selection of musical pieces chosen by the psychologist/music therapist. In the end of the session, people talked about what they were feeling and had just experimented. The second group was just gathering around a table and did nothing in particular. But this weekly exchange became an opportunity for most patients to talk to others and participate to a social activity.
The results of this study have not been published yet, but the psychological evaluations conducted by the professionals tend to show some benefits from the music therapy sessions. First, patients seemed to be more aware of the other people and in the end of the study, they showed more social abilities. An improvement on their behavior also seems to have been found and, more generally, people seemed to be in a better mood.
In sum, this example shows us the importance of social exchanges in Alzheimer’s disease. More than being able to express their creativity, this kind of therapy allows people to gather around a positive activity and to communicate about their feelings and emotions with their peers. Future researches should deal with the long-term effectiveness of music therapy care in depth.
