Dementia Mental and Behavioural Disorders Dementia
Conditions
Interventions
The 'active' treatment will contain 1 ml each of Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), Lime (Citrus latifolia) and Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) essential oils, diluted in a non-fragranced aqueous crea
Sponsors
Australian Centre for Complementary Medicine, Education and Research (ACCMER)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Residents in good health will be invited to participate in the treatment arms of the study if they also comply with the following criteria. They must: 1. Have been living in the nursing home for more than 3 months 2. Be more than 65 years old 3. Already be on an aromatherapy care plan; or deemed by the Director of Care or the care staff to be unlikely to be disturbed by the use of the aromatherapy lotion in place of their normal skin integrity lotion 4. Have English as their first language They must also have: 5. A Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 10-26 6. A diagnosis of dementia, short-term memory loss or cognitive impairment that is not caused by any other diagnosis of mental illness 7. Residents with non-acute concomitant diseases may participate if their disease is medically controlled.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Had a myocardial infarction or stroke in previous 3 months 2. Epilepsy 3. Current treatment with anti-cholinesterase or anti-cholinergic drugs 4. Eczema, psoriasis or dermatitis around the neck and shoulders area 5. Known allergy to Eucalyptus, Cypress, Ginger, Lemongrass, Lime or Mandarin essential oils or aqueous cream 6. An adverse reaction to treatment patch-tests given during screening process 7. Vision or hearing impairments that prevent them from undertaking the cognitive test
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The primary outcome measure will be the difference in mean baseline and endpoint scores on the standardised Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (Molloy et al., 1991). The MMSE is the standard scale used by aged care facilities for assessing the stage of dementia and cognitive function of their residents. The annual rate of change on the MMSE for people with a base-line score between 7-28 is a decrease of 3.6 points per year, or about 0.9 points per 12 weeks (Swanwick et al., 1998). A typical Alzheimer's drug trial reports a mean MMSE increase over 12 weeks between 0.8 and 2.3 points for a similar population. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Secondary outcome measures will be: 1. Difference in baseline, repeated measures and endpoint scores on the Nurses? Observation Scale for Geriatric Patients (NOSGER) (Spiegel et al. 1991) 2. Changes in the use of other medications related to cognitive and behavioural functions (for example, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics) 3. Correlation between ability to smell the treatments and end-point scores on MMSE and NOSGER | — |
Countries
Australia
Outcome results
None listed