Doll Therapy on Patients With Moderate and Severe Dementia

Dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative disease increasing in prevalence due to the aging population that grows in parallel with the increased life expectancy at birth in recent years. It is characterized with a progressive deterioration in cognitive abilities and memory. Due to the increasing losses in cognitive and physical functions, people with dementia become in need of nursing over time. Agitation is the most common behavioral symptom. Agitation is defined as improper verbal, vocal and motor activity that are not purposeful and are not caused by confusion. Verbal and physical aggression, restlessness, aimless wandering, profanity, self-harm, continuous and repetitive questioning behavior emerges.Agitation should be managed with reliable and tolerable, effective methods in order to affect the quality of life of both the patient and the caregiver negatively. Doll therapy is one of the non-pharmacological methods that can be practiced in managing the symptoms of dementia patients. Nurses can practice doll therapy independently, and literature reports that it has positive effects on the behaviors, moods, emotions, cognitive states and social life of patients with moderate and severe dementia.Our country had no study that investigated the effect of doll therapy in managing the cognitive and behavioral symptoms of dementia patients. This study is a randomized controlled trial that aims to investigate the effect of Doll therapy on the cognitive states and agitation levels of patients with moderate and severe dementia.