The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of music therapy (MT) and/or physical rehabilitation (PR) on cognitive and motor function in elderly Tunisian male and female patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). Male patients (n = 16; age 74.19 +/- 4.27 years; weight: 76.71 +/- 5.22 kg) and female patients (n = 12; age 71.46 +/- 3.36 years; weight: 67.47 +/- 4.31 kg) with mild AD were randomly assigned into 4 groups including control group (Co), PR group participated in physical rehabilitation, MT group received music therapy and MT plus PR received both music therapy and physical rehabilitation. Participants were required to engage in the study for four months with three 60-min sessions per week. We found all scores of cognitive (MMSE, ADAS-Cog Total and the ADAS-Cog Memory subscale) and motor functions (step length, walking speed, 6MVT and BBS score) evaluated were the greatest in MT plus PR compared to the other groups. Our study also demonstrated that MT has a greater effect on cognitive function, while PR has a more pronounced effect on motor function. Changes in MMSE scores were significantly positively correlated in the PR, MT and MT plus PR groups with improvements in all motor functions including step length (r = 0.77), walking speed (r = 0.73), 6MVT (r = 0.75) and BBS scores (r = 0.78) in AD patients. In conclusion, the combination of MT and PR seems to be an appropriate intervention approach that needs consideration as a treatment strategy for elderly male and female patients with mild AD.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed Central
• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher