Mnemic Neglect and past memories in dementia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A feasibility study to test whether using past memories to increase psychological resources leads to better recall of information about dementia
IRAS ID
208419
Contact name
Richard Cheston
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of the West of England
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
, 14/SW/1142; , 14/EE/1237
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
This study, funded by Alzheimer’s Research UK continues an on-going research programme that uses findings from social psychological research as a way of understanding how people affected by dementia manage threats to their identity. We have just completed an Alzheimer’s Society funded study exploring the recall of people with mild or moderate levels of dementia for dementia related information. Our findings indicated that recall of dementia related statements was significantly related to how threatening the statements were to identity. Preliminary findings from a PhD study indicate that recalling a nostalgic memory compared to a non-nostalgic memory increases psychological resources including self-esteem, social connectedness and meaning in life for people with dementia. This study combines these two studies; to test whether using nostalgia to increase these psychological resources also leads to improvements in recall of threatening, dementia related information.
This research will contribute to the understanding of the factors affecting two important areas of dementia care: reminiscence and awareness. Secondly it will create the basis to develop new post-diagnostic interventions to support people affected by dementia in managing the psychological threat inherent in their diagnosis.
Thirty people with either Alzheimer’s disease, vascular or mixed dementia will be recruited from the RICE clinic, Bath and the Join Dementia Research register. Half will be randomised to the intervention condition and half to the control condition. Participants in the intervention condition will be asked to recall a nostalgic memory, whereas those in the control condition will simply be asked to recall a memory. The rest of the procedure is identical for both conditions and includes: * a nostalgia manipulation check; * completion of brief measures of psychological resources * a reminder of the memory they had initially recalled; * presentation, recall and recognition of 24 sentences related to dementia; * assessment of affect.REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 2
REC reference
16/ES/0097
Date of REC Opinion
30 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion