Alzheimer's disease reabilitation treatments
Aim of this article is to illustrate the rehabilitation interventions for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Given the current lack of therapies that could modify the presumed pathogenesis of AD, the scientific community has been stimulated to explore the effectiveness of rehabilitative interventions to manage the manifestations of this dementia syndrome with the aim of delaying cognitive decline and functional, reduce mental and behavioral disorders and thus improve the quality of life of the patient and his family. It is clear that the goal of cognitive and functional rehabilitation interventions for an Alzheimer's patient can not be that of the "restitutio ad integrum", due to the progressive degenerative nature of the disease, but it is certainly that of maximizing the ability to maintain the functional autonomy of the disease. patient in his own environment with the limits imposed by the pathology, functional damage and available resources. The conceptual basis supporting the rehabilitative interventions is supported by two peculiarities of the nervous tissue, neuroplasticity and cellular redundancy (functional reserve). The rehabilitation interventions that can be used for Alzheimer's patients can be divided into direct, when they are performed on the patient, and indirect, when acting on the family and the environment in which the patient lives. The direct rehabilitation interventions can then be distinguished in monostrategic and multistrategici; indirect rehabilitative actions include psychoeducational and environmental interventions.
