Evidence and its limitations in reminiscence therapy for older adults

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic review of the effectiveness of reminiscence therapy (RT) and life review interventions conducted to date in Japan, and it attempts to examine their effectiveness, after introducing two reviews that were undertaken abroad. The results of the meta-analyses showed that RT slightly improved the quality of life and self-esteem of participants without dementia, and RT slightly improved cognitive function and withdrawal in participants with dementia. However, the results from the meta-analyses was judged as having a low quality of evidence. For future research, this paper also indicates the importance of the “art” aspect of RT, the so-called knowledge from clinical practice, which has rarely been evaluated in the research paper of empirical studies.