Psychocognitive stimulation in dementias

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that provokes a progressive loss of memory and of other cognitive functions, with additional symptoms in the behavioural and psychological sphere, loss of autonomy and an important overburdening for the family and the social milieu. Dealing with this disorder and other related dementias requires a multidimensional strategy that is able to face the different needs raised by the patient and his family. Given the lack of a curative pharmacological treatment, psychosocial interventions have emerged over the years that are directed at optimising the function of the patient and supporting the family in caring for him, with very different techniques in each of the spheres of intervention (cognitive, behavioural, environmental, family). In this review, we make a description of the interventions that have been most studied in the field of cognitive stimulation, from the most global approaches (reality orientation therapy, reminiscence therapy, psychostimulation programs) to the most specific ones in the field of memory rehabilitation (training of the explicit memory, technique of delayed remembrance, vagueness, error-free learning, procedure training of the memory and the use of external help), and the results are shown of some studies carried out using these techniques of intervention.