Non-pharmacological therapies
Non-Pharmacological Therapies (NPT) refer to “any non-chemical intervention, theoretically sustained and focused, done on a patient or caregiver with the potential of obtaining a significant benefit.” (Olazarán et al., 2010).
They are also known as Psychosocial Interventions and their use in dementia is spreading because of lack of efficient pharmacological treatments. This type of interventions seek relieving the symptoms and improving the quality of life of affected people and their families.
Studies prove that psychosocial interventions can be even more effective than drugs in some cases, like using medicine to improve the quality of life of people with dementia and their caregivers and, also, for the treatment of some main symptoms in this disease.
Some non-pharmacological therapies used on people with dementia are:
- Daily Life Activities
- Dance/Movement Therapy
- Psychomotor Stimulation
- Sensory Stimulation Snoezelen Therapy
- Canine-Assisted Therapy
- Work Therapy
- Music Therapy
- PACID (Comprehensive Cognitive Activation Program for People with Alzheimer’s type Dementia)
- PRO and PAO (Recreational therapies)
- Programa de Atención Integral (Comprehensive Care Program)
- Programa GRADIOR (Computer-based Cognitive Rehabilitation Program)
- Cognitive stimulation
- Functional rehabilitation in upper limb apraxia
- Reminiscence
- Laughter therapy
- Robot therapy
- Reality orientation therapy
- WiiHabilitation
You can see here the non-pharmacological therapies our associations carry out.
