Abstract
The present study was examined the effects of music therapy as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) on the perspective of apathy in the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) for the elderly with dementia. Twenty elderly adults with dementia, whose a mean age was 85.9 year, were conducted the group music therapy using familiar songs which was carried out ten times for eight months biweekly. Significant improvements as a whole were observed in singing, rhythm activity and physical exertion in the area of “emotional response” and an improvement tendency was observed in power of concentration in the area of “sociality.” The elderly with Alzheimer-type dementia showed improvement tendencies in power of concentration, rhythm activity, singing and motivation to participation, while no improvement was found in those with cerebrovascular-type dementia. These results suggest that music therapy has an alleviation effect of the apathy perspective in BPSD and leads to improvement of QOL for the elderly with dementia, especially Alzheimer-type dementia. This means music therapy is useful for the elderly with dementia as CAM.
