¿Cómo aporta la terapia ocupacional en el tratamiento de las demencias?

Abstract

Occupational therapy is a profession concerned with the promotion of health and quality of life through occupation and engagement in activities. Dementia has an individual and social impact related to disability, dependency, need for daily support and exclusion from participation in situations and activities of daily living, matters of interest to occupational therapists. The aim of this article is to synthetize occupational therapy interventions in dementia care, describing perspectives of intervention, identifying current evidence for potential benefits and stablishing criteria for referral. Occupational therapy's perspective in dementia care involves a dynamic view of the impact of cognitive, psychological and behavioral symptoms on the participation of the person with dementia in activities and situations of daily living and the relation with others and the physical environment. Increasing evidence suggests that occupational therapy can enhance the maintenance of participation in activities of daily living as a way to moderate dependency and disability, to promote management of cognitive, psychological and behavioral symptoms and adjusting the abilities of caregivers to face challenging situations of daily living. This synthesis has a clinical relevance as it helps to define occupational therapy framework in dementia care in order to contribute to the design and evaluation of occupational therapy interventions. Introducción L a demencia es un síndrome de enfermedad cerebral, generalmente de naturaleza crónica o progresiva, en la que hay déficits de múltiples fun-ciones corticales superiores, entre ellas la memoria, el pensamiento, la orientación, la comprensión, el cálculo, la capacidad de aprendizaje, el lenguaje y el juicio, sin alteración de la conciencia. El déficit cognoscitivo se acompaña por lo general, y ocasio-nalmente es precedido, de un deterioro en el control emocional, del comportamiento social o de la moti-vación. Este síndrome se presenta en la enfermedad de Alzheimer, en la enfermedad cerebrovascular y