Can music therapy help to reduce anxiety and agitation in patients with dementia? And, if so, is individualized therapy more effective than group therapy?

Respond to discussion

Include citations/Use in text citation where needed

All sources must be 5 years old or newer

Only needs to be about a paragraph long

More like a discussion rather than a paper

Please add to the discussion in your peer responses with informative responses, instead of posts similar to “great idea! I really agree with you.”

Each response needs to have a citation

 

 

POST 1(Judy)

Over recent years, it has been considered best practice to find non-pharmacological ways to reduce anxiety and “behaviors” in patients with dementia. Several interventions have been tested, but one of particular interest is music therapy.  Can music therapy help to reduce anxiety and agitation in patients with dementia? And, if so, is individualized therapy more effective than group therapy?  According to a study published in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (https://www.ajgponline.org/article/S1064-7481(17)30285-3/pdf), it is inferred that in fact, individualized music therapy showed a reduction in the use of pharmacologic interventions in a group of long-stay residents of a nursing home that were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and other types of dementia (Thomas et al., 2017).

Through searching for current research of music therapy on patients diagnosed with dementia, I was able to find several journal entries. However, in reviewing the articles, some did not contain all elements of a well-written article as the one I chose does. A well-written article includes primary sources of information – meaning that the author of the article performed the study conducted in the article (“Week 3 Lesson,” 2020, p. 5). The journal article chosen for this top, particularly pertains to Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, in a nursing home (which is currently where I am employed), and includes a study that pertains to individualized versus group music therapy.  The article contains the method by which the study was conducted, the specific interventions that were applied to the study group, a quantitative measurements and results regarding how many people were able to reduce the use of pharmacologic medications after the study was completed, and a conclusion with recommendations that showed individualized music therapy provided better outcomes as it considered patients preferences that gave them more pleasure in participating in the activitiy.

These findings are credible and pertinent to my proposed research problem for several reasons. The research has been published more recently, about three years ago.  It is a peer reviewed source that has been cited on many occasions. The journal itself pertains specifically to psychiatric disorders of the geriatric population, which is of my specific interest.  The study group was also specific to the population of patients that I care for on a daily basis. And lastly, the study itself was specific to the research question of interest.

References

Thomas, K., Baier, R., Kosur, C., Ogarek, J., Trepman, A., & Mor, V., (2017). Individualized music program is associated with improved outcomes for U.S. nursing home residents with dementia. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. https://www.ajgponline.org/article/S1064-7481(17)30285-3/fulltext

Week 3 lesson: Sources of evidence-based practice and research. (2020). Denver College of Nursing. https://media.pearsoncmg.com/pls/us/edaff/1323465561/nur400_lps/nur400_rebpn_03_01_02.html

 

 

POST 2(Erin)

Nurses experience a lot of different types of people on a daily basis. We are definitely well aware of why certain stereotypes become just that. We see first hand a pattern in behavior with certain individuals and types of people. Because of this, over time a nurse can easily become ‘jaded’. This is certainly true in regard to pain management and patients that may be labeled as ‘drug-seeking’. This can be problematic because even patients who engage in drug-seeking behavior may truly experience pain and need help managing it. This is especially important in emergency cases.

In looking for information regarding this, I used Google Scholar to find publications and articles about drug-seeking. When finding sources for research it is important to find those that are recent (within the last 5-10 years) and peer-reviewed. The elements of a nursing article include an abstract, introduction, method, results, and conclusion. An abstract gives a brief overview of the article. An introduction gives information about the background of the research or study. A method explains how the research was carried out and what approaches were taken. The conclusion wraps up everything and gives a summary of findings. It is also important that the article has a reference section to cite the author’s sources.

The article I found contains all the components of a well-written article. It mentions that labeling a patient a ‘drug-seeker’ may not be in line with nursing values, which I agree with completely (Copeland, 2016). This article is in line with my proposed issue because it brings up the unique ethics of nursing which we all strive to achieve. The author was hoping to evaluate nursing literature and discover what sort of impact the term ‘drug-seeking’ would have on the nursing profession. He also mentions that through the research done it was found that 82.8% of nurses believed that the term ‘drug-seeking’ was a negative one (Copeland, 2016). The conclusion of the article is that this term that is so widely used “is confusing at best and stigmatizing at worst.” (Copeland, 2016). This goes hand in hand with my proposed problem, which is that of the stigma surrounding drug-seeking and the possibility that patients may not receive adequate care because of this concept.

Reference

Copeland, D. (2019). Drug-seeking: A literature review (and an exemplar of stigmatization in nursing). Nursing Inquiry, 27(1), e12329. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12329