Physiological Impact of Music Therapy on Depression, Anxiety and Well-Being of Patients with Dementia of Alzheimer's Type. Assessment of the Use of Questionnaires to Quantify it

Alzheimer's disease has become one of the most prevalent and worrying diseases in our society due to the impact that it has on the patient as well as family members and caregivers. Largely due to the fact that nowadays pharmacological treatments are not curative of this dementia, we considered alternative therapies that improve all the parameters of the disease. In this respect, it is known the direct relationship between chronic stress experienced by the individual in the last years of their life and the appearance of the first symptoms of the disease, standing out depression, anxiety and sadness. Thinking about the extraordinary benefits that music has, we set out to assess the impact that music therapy would have on these symptoms. For this purpose, we carried out a brief intervention using a protocol standardized by us. At the same time, we conducted standardized questionnaires that measure depression and anxiety related to stress and happiness related to well-being, before and after the intervention, being able to assess whether there is any improvement, and if the use of questionnaires is suitable to quantify it. The results show a great improvement in patients regarding these symptoms, and therefore music therapy can be considered to be a very effective therapeutic tool to reduce the stress in these patients.