Daily social interaction benefits people with dementia

Did you know: 10 minutes of daily social interaction can reduce agitation in dementia

People with dementia need meaningful and enjoyable activities to help them live well. Meeting these needs helps to reduce agitation, restlessness and aggression in people with dementia.

Just ten minutes a day of social activity, tailored to the interests of the person involved, made a significant impact in reducing negative behaviours, by almost a third.

The study was conducted in 318 people, and the team has called for a robust, large-scale trial to examine the effects in more depth.

Their results indicate that the social interaction approach could be useful to prevent agitation, restlessness and aggression.

This approach could reduce the numbers of people who are prescribed antipsychotics to manage their behavioural symptoms. The most commonly antipsychotics cause terrible side effects in people with dementia, quadrupling the risk of stroke and death in Parkinson’s disease. Reducing the prescribing of these drugs through preventing symptoms such as agitation from escalating is one way of helping people to live well for longer.

Date: 12 May 2017