TITLE:
A Novel Non-Pharmaceutical Treatment for Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment
AUTHORS:
Christina Darviri, Chrysa Zavitsanou, Aikaterini Delikou, Aikaterini Giotaki, Artemios Artemiadis, Aspasia Terentiou, George P. Chrousos
KEYWORDS:
Mild Cognitive Impairment, Dementia, Treatment, Alzheimer, Intervention
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.7 No.5,
May
16,
2016
ABSTRACT: Mild
cognitive impairment (MCI) represents a pre-dementia stage. Currently, there is
no evidence for long-term efficacy of pharmacological treatment for preventing
conversion to clinical dementia. Healthy lifestyle modifications, cognitive
training and psychosocial initiatives are strongly recommended. This was an
8-week parallel randomized two-armed study. Eligible patients were randomized
to intervention and control group, with the intervention group receiving the
PSAI intervention including cognitive training, healthy lifestyle and stress
management. Standardized questionnaires were used pre- and post-intervention.
The between group analysis revealed a significant improvement in cognitive
aspects, depression, stress, anxiety and self-efficacy post-intervention (p r > 0.5). Nine patients in the intervention group had one point
increase in the MMSE score and one patient had a two-point increment
post-intervention. Future studies should expand these preliminary findings to
larger samples, neuroimaging measurements and longer follow-up in order to
ascertain PSAI’s role in preventing conversion to clinical dementia.