| Dementia causes difficulty with cognition and can lead to dementia-based behaviors including suspicions, pacing, wandering, and difficulty communicating. Behaviors can be stressful to the patient, causing increased agitation and anxiety. Escalating anxiety and agitation have the potential to lead to aggression. Antipsychotic medications used for dementia-based behaviors have harmful side effects and increased risk of mortality. Progressively lowering stress threshold describes the need to adjust the environment of the dementia patient to lower stress, thus lowering the potential for increased anxiety and agitation. A review of literature showed implementing an individualized music program can reduce anxiety and antipsychotic medication use. The project was completed at a long-term care center with a dementia unit. Fifteen patients were included in the project. Musical preferences were gathered from each resident along with music based on these preferences. Music was provided individually for each of these residents twice per week for 30-minute sessions over a six-week period. Results showed a 48.5% reduction in mean anxiety scores when using the Rating Anxiety in Dementia tool. Antipsychotic medications were also reduced by 6.4% during the six-week music implementation period. The implications and recommendations from this project include the need to increase use of this type of music program and focus on educating others on how to implement an individualized music program. |
