January 26, 2017.
According to researchers from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), personalized care at home, or occupational therapy, for patients with Alzheimer’s disease would be very effective.
Leave patients in their environment
Inserm researchers sought to understand which treatments were the most effective in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Among all the existing methods (neuronal stimulation, video games, etc.), they found that occupational therapy was particularly effective. But what is it exactly?
According to Inserm, this method consists of “ to stimulate certain activities of sick people or to maintain their autonomy in a safe and efficient manner while taking into account their lifestyle and their environment “. It’s a home care of Alzheimer’s patients. Thanks to this method, many patients have seen their loss of autonomy slow down and their behavioral problems recede.
Behavioral problems decrease
To reach this conclusion, the researchers followed more than 400 Alzheimer’s patients for 3 months. At the end of these three months, they were able to observe that thanks to this method, “ behavioral disorders of patients, the time spent by caregivers taking care of their sick loved one and the emotional load associated with this care, had significantly decreased and were stable after this period “.
Still according to this work, it would seem that this method is more effective for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. However, researchers do not know if the presence of caregivers could disappear completely. or whether it would still be necessary despite the progress of patients. What could also pose a problem is the cost of such support, since nearly 225,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
Marine Rondot
Read also: Do you know how to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s?