Background: Today there are approximately one million people with dementia in Germany. Because most forms of dementia cannot be cured the focus of treatment is to provide adequate care, aiming at the maintenance of cognitive functioning, the ability to perform everyday tasks and quality of life. Important approaches for dementia care are multisensory stimulation, validation, reality orientation and reminiscence therapy. However, the efficacy of these approaches is unclear.
Methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed. We included randomised controlled trials with at least 30 participants on the efficacy of multi-sensory stimulation, validation, reality orientation and reminiscence therapy for dementia. No restrictions were defined with regard to the endpoints under investigation.
Results: A total of 14 studies with 1,513 patients could be included of which 5 studies assessed reminiscence therapy, 4 multi-sensory stimulation, 3 validation and 2 reality orientation. The studies analysed cognitive functioning, behavioural outcomes, psychological symptoms and quality of life. Most studies did not find significant differences between the intervention and the control group.
Conclusion: The studies conducted to date provide only little evidence for the efficacy of the approaches for dementia care considered in this review. However, only few methodologically robust studies could be identified for this review which highlights the need for more interventional studies.