Extrait

Background and study aims In the UK, over 700,000 older people have dementia. This leads to progressive intellectual deterioration, problems carrying out daily activities such as self-care, social isolation, and increasing difficulty interacting and communicating. Dementia also has an immense social and economic impact on health and social care services, and on family carers. Drug treatments have an important role in dementia care but in the UK they are limited to people with Alzheimer's disease with moderately severe dementia, have a limited impact on the illness, and are not suitable for all patients. Psychological treatments for dementia such as reality orientation are widely used in the UK and internationally for several decades, but there has been little high quality research on their effectiveness. There is an urgent need to find useful interventions to help reduce the impact of dementia on people with dementia, carers and society. In the UK there is increasing recognition that psychological therapies for dementia should be made more available and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence has recommended that cognitive stimulation approaches should be made widely available for people with mild to moderate dementia. A new approach known as Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) has been developed and has been found to improve memory, quality of life, and cognition. CST may also potentially reduce costs of care, for example by delaying institutionalisation. We have spoken to people with dementia and their carers who are keen on having a version of CST which can be delivered by the carer, particularly for people who are unable or unwilling to go out of the house and/or to attend groups. They also felt it could help the relationship between the carer and the person with dementia. Previous research has also shown that involving carers in delivering interventions can be beneficial for both. The aim of this study is to find out whether individual home-based CST improves cognition and quality of life in people with dementia. Who can participate? Patients with dementia What does the study involve? Participants are randomly allocated to receive either usual care or individual CST sessions delivered by their caregiver. Individual CST sessions last for 30 minutes each and take place three times a week over 25 weeks. We then assess cognition, quality of life, and costs of care in both groups. What are the possible benefits and risks of participating? Not provided at time of registration Where is the study run from? University College London (UCL) (UK) When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for? July 2010 to June 2014 Who is funding the study? NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme - HTA (UK) Who is the main contact? Prof Martin Orrell [email protected]

Critère d'inclusion

• Dementia

Liens

• ictrp
• isrctn