Multi Sensorial Stimulation Lab: A New Approach for Severe Dementia

The MS-Lab project wants to implement a non-pharmacological method of multisensory stimulation aimed at reducing the sense of discomfort and improving the psycho-behavioral disorders typical of subjects with severe dementia, with the aim of improving the quality of life of patients, verifying effectiveness and safety of this method. This technological implementation is made possible by a wide and complex collaboration between organizations and companies with different skills. As described by practice and theory, appropriate sensory stimulation can lead to several improvements, such as: greater initiative of patients, greater vigilance, improvement in mood and interpersonal relations, greater attention and confusional state reduction. Moreover, positive effects could derive from the possible reduction of drugs and/or psychotropic drugs, with consequent reduction of pharmacological side effects and reduction of health costs, as well as decrease in the need for physical restraint. MS-Lab is experimenting a non-pharmacological therapy through a multisensory stimulation and intend to overcome some limits detected in this type of treatment, improving its effectiveness by supporting a framework designed as a complex system of input and output devices driven by an intelligent system able to modulate sensory stimuli according to the continuously measured biological parameters. The project also proposes to define a detailed protocol with an algorithm at the base of a dedicated software, in order to make this experience repeatable, producing data that can be freely used by experts, re-proposing it in a clinical contest or in any other environments to be defined ad hoc. Moreover, a multiplatform software layer will be designed and implemented to support Clinical Decisions (CDSS), supporting caregivers through suitable graphic interfaces on mobile devices, suggesting the most appropriate domains to be stimulated on the basis of current and past clinical parameters acquired from sensors’ ecosystem. MS-Lab will be installed at “Casa Amata”—a nursing home located in Taviano (Le), Italy—and at “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” —an hospital and Research Institution located in S. Giovanni Rotondo (Fg), Italy—with the aim of conducting simultaneous and co-planned experiments through the proposed treatment able to represent the best answer to the end-user needs.