In order to understand well the emotions of these patients, certain therapies exist to determine the different emotions being presented by the patient, namely (a) reminiscence therapy, (b) validation therapy, (c) supportive psychotherapy and (e) sensory integration. According to Mulligan, Linden and Juillerat (2003), reminiscence therapy utilizes different themes, props and triggers in order to facilitate the patient’s capacity to recall past experiences and promote intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning (p. 169).
Reminiscence therapy aims at withdrawing the psychological memories of the patient through significant activities, objects or individuals in the person’s well-being. Meanwhile, validation therapy centers on the emotional and subjective reality the patient perceives or experiences. According to Boyd (2005), the benefits of the therapy is the restoration of self-worth, lessen the physical isolation and depression of the patient, foster communicating and interacting behavior, reduce stress and anxiety and identify possible areas that can still be manipulated by the patient despite his or her condition (p.
696-696). Lastly, the sensory integration therapy utilizes different forms of sensory-stimulating activities (most commonly music) in order to engage the patient in different activities involving the common sensory functions of the body, such as tactile, vestibular, auditory, and multisensory inputs (Crowe, 2004 p. 20). These interventions aim at innervating the patient’s motor and sensory functions despite of the cognitive impairments caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
In the process of applying these therapies, the health care provider monitors the different emotions manifested by the patient. Emotions manifested by the patients act as significant hint in determining their current emotional and psychological status. However, these therapies can only be applied on patients in their early to middle stages of dementia. Emotions are not anymore appropriate instrument of communication since a patient under this state remains mute or severely hallucinated, which greatly compromise the any emotional expression.
Furthermore, patient in the terminal phase of Alzheimer’s disease cannot anymore produce any indication of emotion due to severity of cognition damage in the brain. III. Conclusion In conclusion, Alzheimer’s disease is a life threatening, degenerative and irreversible condition targeting the mental, emotional, physical and psychological components of an individual. Two of the destructive etiologies of Alzheimer’s disease related to emotional impairment are the production of lesions and tangles in (a) the right tempoparietal hemisphere of the brain and (b) the limbic system, especially amygdala.
These two areas are the principal components of the brain’s emotion centers responsible for retrieving, recognizing and processing appropriate emotions. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease are confronted by emotional impairments during the late to terminal stages of the disease. Since language and speech functions of Alzheimer patients are also compromised or impaired by the disease, health care providers detect the psychological and emotional estates of their patients through their emotions.
However, not all Alzheimer patients can use emotions to communicate their needs; hence, different therapies (e.g. reminiscence therapy, validation therapy, etc) have been established to properly commune with their patients as long as these are appropriate.
References
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