Dementia Holistic treatment approach

Dementia: holistic treatment approach with "MAKS active"

In view of the growing number of people affected, dementia is also becoming more and more of a topic in Germany. There are several new treatment approaches available that include, among other things, a holistic promotion of dementia patients, not least to reduce the massive use of drugs. One of these new methods is the therapy program currently being tested „MAKS active“.

Without medication, treat dementia
The new method of non-drug multicomponent therapy (MAKS aktiv) focuses on stimulating the motor, everyday practical, cognitive and spiritual abilities of the patients and thus helps to ensure that those affected remain cognitively stable, explains Elmar Gräßel from the University Hospital Erlangen. 129 Dementia patients are treated in five nursing homes of the Diakonie Neuendettelsau with the new method, whereby six days a week for two hours, the motor, everyday practical, cognitive and spiritual abilities of patients are stimulated and encouraged.

Experience community, structure and reliability
This holistic treatment approach not only improves the mood of patients and their everyday practical skills, but also „People recognize what is still in them. Through the regular meetings, they discover community, structure and reliability, "explains Stephan Abt, head of the Sigmund Faber home in Hersbruck.
And not only the patients but also the employees benefit from the diversified therapeutic offer. Because to relieve the nursing staff is an improvement of the depressive mood of dementia sufferers, according to Renate Stemmer of the Catholic University of Mainz, extremely important. Stephan Abt adds that for the first time the combination of MAKS aktiv and dementia medication also makes a temporary improvement in the abilities of those affected seem realistic.

Same effects as with a medication
According to Prof. Elmar Gräßel from the Psychiatric and Psychotherapeutic University Clinic Erlangen, the effects of "MAKS active" on memory and thinking could be approximately the same as those of the currently best available drugs. By comparison, Prof. Gräßel's effect on the everyday practical abilities as well as the overall symptomatology of the patients is even greater and, according to him, probably has longer-lasting effects than the known drugs. According to Prof. Gräßel, the social behavior of the dementia has clearly improved as part of the treatment and they were less aggressive and less often depressive.

MAKS aktiv is one of 29 "Lighthouse Projects Dementia", for which the Federal Ministry of Health has provided a total of 13 million euros in funding. The basic condition for the participation of the patients was that they are still able to participate in group offers. The form of care, however, is very time-consuming and labor-intensive, so that treatment methods such as MAKS can actively be organized only in individual cases, said Stephan Abt. The results, however, have convinced: some subjects have suddenly even spoken whole sentences and were also two hours still mentally present after the session. In some cases, patients could even remember forgotten things from their lives or lost abilities.

Nearly 1.3 million people in Germany suffer from dementia, with Alzheimer's is by far the most common form. About one third of those affected currently live in nursing homes. The symptoms of a disease range from lack of concentration, temporal and spatial loss of orientation, passivity and helplessness to the loss of knowledge and biography. Dementia patients are often overstrained and sometimes aggressive when it comes to changes or innovations. (fp, 25.09.2010)

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