Introduction
Many older adults suffer from dementia. The most common cause of dementia in these adults is Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The adults experience a decline in cognitive skills important to help the brain think, read, learn and remember. These adults also experience non-cognitive symptoms. For AD, sleep disturbance is the most common non-cognitive symptom.
Researchers must seek multiple treatment strategies because of the different factors that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep disturbance increases the speed of AD progression so managing the symptom can be beneficial in AD treatment.
Massage therapy can increase sleep quality, especially for people with sleep disturbances. In particular, electrical automatic massage (EAM), which does a full body massage, improves sleep quality. Researchers need to further study the effects of EAM on AD patients.
Purpose
The study aims to further investigate how muscle relaxation caused by EAM can improve symptoms in AD patients.
Methods
The researchers conducted a 12-month randomized, control study of patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. In randomized control studies, one group usually receives the treatment of interest. This is the “treatment group.” Another group receives the typical treatment (the “control group”).
The study involved 60 patients, with 30 people in the treatment group and 30 in the control group. Both groups received their regular medical care and conventional treatment for AD cognitive symptoms. The treatment group also received EAM twice a day for 30 minutes across 12 months. Before the study, all participants completed a series of tests and questionnaires. Questions assessed sleep quality, cognitive symptoms and non-cognitive symptoms. The participants repeated the tests every 6 months after the study started. Patients received MRI scans before and after completion of the study.
Results & Discussion
EAM had varying effects on AD symptoms. Cognitive skills in patients decreased a similar amount in both the control and treatment groups. The participants already had notable cognitive decline in the early stages of AD. EAM results might have been better for preclinical stage patients since symptoms do not fester in this stage.
Most non-cognitive skills did not improve after EAM. Yet, muscle relaxation from EAM did slow down the patients’ decline in sleep quality. This might have contributed to the reduced decline in attention also noticed. Thus, sleep quality improvements can slow down AD development and decrease the risk of other diseases that can increase AD.
Conclusion
This is the first study to evaluate the effects of muscle relaxation on AD patients. EAM shows great potential for being a possible treatment to manage AD. Researchers must conduct more studies to improve the accuracy of results. Future studies would need more participants, control and restrictions.
References
Kim, Y. J., Kim, H.-R., Jung, Y. H., Park, Y. H., & Seo, S. W. (2021). Effects of Electrical Automatic Massage on Cognition and Sleep Quality in Alzheimer’s Disease Spectrum Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Yonsei Medical Journal, 62(8), 717. https://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2021.62.8.717
About the Author
Keshanah Raviendran is a Master’s of Health Science (MHSc) candidate at the University of Toronto.
SCIFAA 