Emotion recognition rehabilitation combined with cognitive stimulation for people with Alzheimer's disease. Efficacy for cognition and functional aspects

Abstract

[EN]The ability to recognize facial emotional expression is essential for social interactions and adapting to the environment. Emotion recognition is impaired in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD), thus rehabilitation of these skills has the potential to elicit significant benefits. To assess the efficacy of a combined treatment of rehabilitation of emotion recognition (RER) and cognitive stimulation (CS) for people with AD, due to its potential implications for more effective psychosocial interventions. 36 patients were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: an experimental group (EG) that received 20 sessions of RER and 20 sessions of CS; a control group (CG) that received 40 sessions of CS, and a treatment as usual group (TAU). 32 patients completed the treatment (77.53 ± 5.43 years). Significant differences were found in MMSE30 (F = 5.10; p = 0.013), MMSE35 (F = 4.16; p = 0.026), affect recognition (Z = -2.81; p = 0.005) and basic activities of daily living (Z = -2.27; p = 0.018) favouring the efficacy of the combined treatment. The TAU group showed a decline in depression (Z = -1.99; p = 0.048), apathy (Z = -2.30; p = 0.022) and anosognosia (Z = -2.19; p = 0.028). The combined treatment of RER + CS was more effective than TAU and CS alone for the treatment of patients with AD. This is the first study about the rehabilitation of affect recognition in AD.