Resources and links around activities and suggestions, righty ho.
Does stimulation work? A group (Baker R, Holloway J, Holtkamp CC, Larsson A, Hartman LC, Pearce R, Scherman B, Johansson S, Thomas PW, Wareing LA, Owens M.) based at the Research and Development Support Unit, Poole Hospital NHS Trust and Dorset HealthCare NHS Trust, Poole, UK, stated in published research, "
. . . groups remained stable during the trial but deteriorated once the sessions had stopped . . ."
The
psychtreatment site has useful stuff on cognitive stimulation therapy (CST). Summary was that when any treatment (drug or CST) worked, CST worked better than donepezil (aricept) 5mg and better than rivastigmine (exelon). Bottom line was that in a well done bit of research, stimulation is pretty comparable to drugs.
A London group (Spector A, Thorgrimsen L, Woods B, Royan L, Davies S, Butterworth M, Orrell M) published in 2003 showing, "
The results compare favourably with trials of drugs for dementia," and that CST was worthwhile.
So knowing that stimulation helps, and is more than just an "add on" but conversely is of comparable to the drugs in terms of benefits, where can we find out about it?
There are some lengthy and jargon filled papers on various sorts of stimulation, and although it's not the easiest of reads I reckon that this work by
Linda Clare is useful in giving ideas on practical was to do it.
If you're up to sleuthing around for details, then these
references give a comprehensive range to plow through.
The most user friendly site I've found, on how to practically start cognitive stimulation, is
this one.
Hope that's a useful starting point!
