Alzheimer's patients may no longer remember memories, both old and new, but that doesn't meant they also have diminished emotions.
In an online article published in the University of Iowa website last Wednesday, September 24, 2014, by John Riehl, a team of UI researchers discovered that Alzheimer's patients still have their emotions intact regardless of how much memories they can remember or not.
The study's lead author is Edmarie Guzman-Velez, who is currently a clinical psychology doctoral fellow. She worked with a neurology and psychology professor UI Daniel Tranel and University of Tulsa assistant professor Justin Feinstein. The latter two had previously worked together in another study about the significance of meeting emotional needs of these patients.
For the research, the UI team created two groups composed of healthy individuals and Alzheimer's patients. Both were then compelled to watch movies that created sad and happy emotions for about 20 minutes.
Five minutes after the movies ended, both groups were then asked to answer a memory tests. Those with Alzheimer's disease had varied memories about the movies they had just seen, with one forgetting about ever watching anything.
Nevertheless, when asked to relate their feelings before and after watching the clips, the patients actually had significant recollection of emotions, whether it's happiness or sadness, even after half an hour had already passed since watching the movies. Moreover, their findings also suggest they retain the feeling of sadness much longer than happiness.
This study is incredibly significant since it stresses the huge influence of health care workers or caregivers to the quality of life of these patients. Although there's still no known cure for the disease or a way to significantly delay its progression, caregivers can still give them better health and well-being by improving their happiness level through frequent interactions, playtime, music and dance, and physical activities, to name a few.