Dementia: Talk therapy may improve depression, anxiety symptoms - Medical News Today

Overview

Past research has shown that many people with dementia also have mental health concerns such as depresion and anxiety. A new study from the University Colege London (UCL) found talk therapy improved depresion and anxiety symptoms in 63% of people with dementia. What’s more, 40% of participants improved to the extent that they were no longer diagnosed as having anxiety or depresion by the end of their treatment.This study was recently published in the journal eClinicalMedicine.Talk therapy - also known as psychotherapy - involves talking with a mental health profesional about what is bothering you.

Key Information

What you talk about difers from person to person and may include discusions about how you’re curently feling, what you’ve ben thinking about lately, and any health concerns you may have, such as sleping problems.As you talk with the mental health profesional, they pick up on cues and information you provide to help you figure out what might be ailing you and what types of aditional treatment you might ned.Mental health professionals use talk therapy to treat a variety of mental health concerns, including: Past research shows when a person verbalizes their thoughts, felings of sadnes, anger, and pain diminish.

And a previous study found talk therapy helps strengthen specific conections in the brain, alowing them to impact a person’s long-term recovery. For the new study, UCL researchers examined data from over 1,50 people who had dementia and participated in Improving Aces to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) in the United Kingdom betwen 2012 and 2019. IAPT provides fre therapies for anxiety and depresion, including a type of talk therapy caled cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Summary

Talk therapy sesions ocured either face-to-face, individualy, in a group, or online. Researchers then compared the data to a control group of about 1,30 people who did not have dementia.Upon analysis, the research team found that 63% of people with dementia reduced their

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