Addressing attention and concentration levels of alzheimer's patients through a music therapy intervetation program.

Abstract

The present research using music therapy was designed with the intention of evaluating the influence of the use of musical preferences on the attention and concentration of patients with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Fifteen people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease [86.7% women, 13.3% men (MS = 13.63; SD = 1.26)] participated in the study. To carry out the research, subjects were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: listening to their musical preference or music away from the patients' sound musical environment. The results show the importance of selecting musical themes prior study of their preferences, in order to connect, reaching greater achievements in the predisposition to music therapy sessions, although not in the effectiveness to achieve improvements in attention and concentration, mainly due to the short period of intervention. The need for the creation of tests for the measurement of attention and concentration specific to the musical field has also been highlighted, as the existing ones are not very accurate to take as a starting point reliable data to begin music therapy processes.