期刊名称：Revue de Neuropsychologie Neurosciences Cognitives et Cliniques
印刷版ISSN：2101-6739
电子版ISSN：2102-6025
出版年度：2012
卷号：4
期号：2
页码：123-130
DOI：10.1684/nrp.2012.0209
出版社：John Libbey Eurotext
摘要：Authors Émiline Lapre , Virginie Postal , Isabelle Bourdel-Marchasson , Carole Boisson , Stéphanie Mathey Université de Bordeaux, Laboratoire de Psychologie, Santé et Qualité de vie, EA 4139, Bordeaux, France, Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5536, CNRS, CHU Bordeaux Bordeaux, France, EHPAD Manon Cormier, Bègles, France Key words: Alzheimer disease, cognitive therapy, executive functions DOI : 10.1684/nrp.2012.0209 Page(s) : 123-30 Published in: 2012 The goal of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of the cognitive stimulation on elementary cognitive processes and executive functioning in Alzheimer's disease. We hypothesized that cognitive stimulation would decrease cognitive and executive decline dementia-related. Twenty patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (NINCDS-ADRDA criteria) were recruited from a nursing-home (Mini-Mental State Examination score between 20 and 26) and were randomly assigned into an experimental and a control group. Experimental group patients have benefited of 12 sessions of cognitive stimulation in which various cognitive and psychosocial exercises have been performed. Executive functions were assessed by using three tasks that address updating, inhibition and switching abilities. The controlled conditions of executive tasks have been used to measure speed processing and short term memory. Moreover, the impact of cognitive stimulation on anxiety and depression has also been assessed. All patients were evaluated at the study entry and after 12 weeks of the current program. The results show that the experimental group with cognitive stimulation performed better than the control group on processing speed and short-term memory outcomes. As for executive functioning, differences between groups were significant on switching scores. Finally, analyses showed that cognitive stimulated patients differed positively from the control group on depression scales. This pilot study shows the therapeutic benefits of non-pharmacological interventions in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Cognitive stimulation has improved two elementary cognitive components (processing speed and short-term memory) and switching capacities. Our findings also suggest that such intervention can be highly beneficial on depression and tends to show that plasticity remains possible in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In spite of cerebral injury, brain seems to be able to compensate during the early stage of disease.
