Emotional events have a long lasting influence on how Alzheimer's patients feel, even if they have already forgotten the event itself. This was confirmed in a study conducted by US researchers that was published in "Cognitive and Behavioural Neurology".
Scientists from the University of Iowa (Iowa City) asked 17 patients with Alzheimer's disease and an equal number of controls to view 20 minutes of a sad and then a happy movie. The movies triggered the expected emotions. Five minutes after watching the movies, the participants were asked what they could recall. Shortly before and after seeing the films, the participants were also asked to assess their current emotional state.
As expected, patients with Alzheimer's disease had remembered significantly less information about the films than the control group. Four of the participants were unable to remember any factual details of the movies, and one did not even remember watching any movie at all. However, despite the absence of any memories, the trial subjects reported elevated levels of either sadness or happiness for up to 30 minutes after watching the film. In fact, the less they remembered about the movie, the longer their sadness lasted.
For relatives and caregivers it is therefore very important to avoid negative emotions and to attempt inducing positive feelings, say the authors. "Our findings should empower caregivers by showing them that their actions toward patients really do matter", said study author Edmarie Guzman-Velez.
Univadis
