Changing the Mood ~ Alzheimer's Caregiving...

Giving Alzheimer’s Patients Their Way, Even Chocolate writes Pam Belluck in the NYTimes about innovative care practices at the Beatitudes nursing home...

"Dementia patients at Beatitudes are allowed practically anything that brings comfort, even an alcoholic “nip at night,” said Tena Alonzo, director of research. “Whatever your vice is, we’re your folks,” she said. Once, Ms. Alonzo said: “The state tried to cite us for having chocolate on the nursing chart. They were like, ‘It’s not a medication.’ Yes, it is. It’s better than Xanax.” It is an unusual posture for a nursing home, but Beatitudes is actually following some of the latest science. Research suggests that creating positive emotional experiences for Alzheimer’s patients diminishes distress and behavior problems. In fact, science is weighing in on many aspects of taking care of dementia patients, applying evidence-based research to what used to be considered subjective and ad hoc. With virtually no effective medical treatment for Alzheimer’s yet, most dementia therapy is the caregiving performed by families and nursing homes. Some 11 million people care for Alzheimer’s-afflicted relatives at home. In nursing homes, two-thirds of residents have some dementia. [Increasingly researchers are realizing that] behavioral problems could stem from sadness or anxiety that patients cannot explain. “Because you don’t have a memory, there’s this general free-floating state of distress and you can’t really figure out why,” Mr. Feinstein said. Similarly, happy emotions, even from socializing with patients, “could linger well beyond the memories that actually caused them.” One program for dementia patients cared for by relatives at home creates specific activities related to something they once enjoyed. [...] Comforting food improves behavior and mood because it “sends messages they can still understand: ‘it feels good, therefore I must be in a place where I’m loved.'"

We still have a tremendous amount to learn about neurotherapeutics in-the-large, especially in the realm of social health and around non-cognitive emotional-psychological dimensions.