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Case Report: Aquatic Therapy and End‐Stage Dementia
Author(s) -
Becker Bruce E.,
Lynch Stacy
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
pmandr
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.617
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1934-1563
pISSN - 1934-1482
DOI - 10.1016/j.pmrj.2017.09.001
Subject(s) - dementia , medicine , activities of daily living , physical therapy , intervention (counseling) , stage (stratigraphy) , physical medicine and rehabilitation , psychiatry , disease , paleontology , biology
A 54‐year‐old woman, retired due to progressive cognitive decline, was diagnosed with early‐onset Alzheimer dementia. Conventional medication therapy for dementia had proven futile. Initial evaluation revealed a nonverbal female seated in a wheelchair, dependent on 2‐person assist for all transfers and activities of daily living. She had been either nonresponsive or actively resistive for both activities of daily living and transfers in the 6 months before assessment. After a total of 17 1‐hour therapy sessions over 19 weeks in a warm water therapy pool, she achieved the ability to tread water for 15 minutes, transfers improved to moderate‐to‐maximum assist from seated, and ambulation improved to 1000 feet with minimum‐to‐moderate assist of 2 persons. Communication increased to appropriate “yes,” “no,” and “okay” appropriate responses, and an occasional “thank you” and “very nice.” The authors propose that her clinical progress may be related to her aquatic therapy intervention. Level of Evidence IV