What is it about?
People with advanced dementia often exhibit responsive behaviors such as apathy, depression, agitation, aggression, and psychosis. Non-pharmacological approaches (e.g., listening to music, watching television, doing arts and crafts) are now considered as a first-line strategy to manage responsive behaviors in clinical practice due to the potential risks associated with the antipsychotic medications. To date, no evaluations of immersive non-head mounted virtual reality (VR) experience as a non-pharmacologic approach for people with advanced dementia living in nursing homes have been reported. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility (acceptance and safety) of VR experience.
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Why is it important?
Premature dissemination of non-pharmacologic interventions exposes vulnerable older adults with dementia to the potential risks of ineffective therapies and exposes a health care system limited by constrained resources to potentially wasteful expenditures. These considerations highlight the importance of a carefully designed study.
Perspectives
A single site case series (nonrandomized and unblinded) with a convenience sample (N = 24; age = 85.8 ± 8.6 years; Cognitive Performance Scale score = 3.4 ± 0.6) measuring depression and agitation before and after the intervention. The intervention was a 30-min long research coordinator–facilitated VR experience for two weeks (10 sessions). The intervention was feasible (attrition rate = 0%; adverse events = 0). A reduction in depression and in agitation was observed after the intervention. However, we suggest extreme caution in interpreting this result considering the study design and small sample size. This study provides the basis for conducting a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of VR experience on responsive behaviors in nursing homes. Since our intervention uses a smart remote-controlled projector without a headset, infectious exposure can be avoided following the COVID-19 pandemic-induced physical distancing policy in care homes.
Munira Sultana
western university
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Virtual Reality Experience Intervention May Reduce Responsive Behaviors in Nursing Home Residents with Dementia: A Case Series, Journal of Alzheimer s Disease, November 2021, IOS Press,
DOI: 10.3233/jad-210010.
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