Poster Presentations

Session Title: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) including Non-Cognitive Aspects
Presentation Date: Friday, March 14 – Saturday, March 15, 2009

ADARTE VISUAL ART IN ALZHEIMER DISEASE

O. Musella¹, A. Carloni¹, L. De Marino¹, E. Di Bartolo¹, G. Gaeta¹, A.M. Fasanaro², P. Di Maggio^3
1Associazione Maké, Napoli, Italy, ²A. Cardarelli, Unità Alzheimer, Napoli, Italy, ³Soprintendenza BAP PSAE, Napoli, Italy

Introduction: Depression is often found in Alzheimer disease patients and leads to social activities reduction. The cognitive reserve is therefore diminished as well life quality. Interventions that might improve this aspect are therefore crucial.
We report here a program based on visual art aimed at improving the mood and the social interactions of patients with Alzheimer Disease.
Method: Ten AD patients participated to weekly meetings based on visual artwork observation. From the pictures emotions were stimulated and the dialogue encouraged. Last meetings were in a museum and involved small groups.
Psychological assessment was done before and after the programme through the POMS (Profile Of Mood Test) and caregivers interviews.
Conclusions: This intervention based on visual art was effective in improving the psychological health and social interactions. Artworks observation helped the patients to express their emotions and improved communication. As evaluations and judgements of artworks are subjective and free, patients were encouraged to express their views, perceiving themselves as someone able to choose and evaluate. This aspect probably allowed the improvement of psychological health, shown by the POMS test. If self-esteem is increased then the social interactions are encouraged.
Visual art may become dialogue.