Effects of creative expression therapy on Chinese elderly patients with dementia: an exploratory randomized controlled trial

Rong Lin,1 Hui-Ying Chen,2 Hong Li,1,2 Jing Li21Department of Nursing, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaPurpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of creative expression (CE) therapy on cognition, communication, emotion, and quality-of-life in people with dementia.Methods: One hundred individuals were included in this study, of whom 91 completed the study (mean age=84.33). The participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=43) and a control group (n=48), and received the CE program or standard cognitive (SC) training twice a week for 6 weeks, respectively. Both groups were submitted to extensive neuropsychological tests, as follows – Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Quality of Life-Alzheimer’s Disease (QOL-AD), Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD), Functional Assessment of Communication Skills (FACS) at baseline, 1-, and 4 -weeks post-intervention, and the Observed Emotion Rating Scale (OERS) was measured during the intervention period at weeks 3 and 6.Results: The participants demonstrated significant improvements in cognitive function, quality-of-life, depression degree, communication ability, and emotion status (P<0.05) at post-intervention, which were maintained at 1-month follow-up.Conclusion: This study provides preliminary evidence that CE therapy developed in the study benefits elderly Chinese with dementia. The findings indicated that non-pharmacological intervention programs – CE therapy – can be applied in the management of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia.Keywords: dementia, creative expression therapy, standard cognitive training, psycho-social intervention