Adults with dementia showed significantly improved mood scores, including reduced depression over time, when given their own robotic pets, a new study has found.
The intervention took place over 12 visits to an adult day center, and involved 12 attendees with mild to moderate dementia. Each received an interactive robotic cat, which was fitted with a collar and name tag
.Florida Atlantic University researchers assessed mood and behavioral symptoms using a number of standardized mood, emotion and depression scales, and found improvement across all mood scores over time. There was also slight-to-moderate improvement in attention, language and registration, researchers reported.
Center attendees were observed stroking and speaking to their robotic pets. Some carried their cats with them, including one who slept with their cat during a hospital visit. They were often observed smiling and talking to the robots, and appeared to believe that the pet was responding to them through its meowing and movements.
“Our project offers a way to address symptoms naturally and without the use of pharmacological treatments, which may … have possible detrimental side effects,” co-author Bryanna Streit LaRose, DNP, reported in Issues in Mental Health Nursing.
From the December 2021 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
