Social Robots as a Complementary Therapy in Chronic, Progressive Diseases

Globally, the world population is ageing, which increases the prevalence of non-communicable diseases that affect patients both physically and psychologically, such as is the case of dementia. Consequently, there is a greater demand for the healthcare system as it needs to develop solutions to answer to these needs.The literature review shows that complementary therapies may be applied in dementia in order to aid the symptom management as well as to slow down the progression of the disease. The Socially Assistive Robots (SAR) are tools that may be used as a complementary therapy in dementia and have shown to promote a potentially beneficial relationship. The zoomorphic models of SAR have shown to have similar results to complementary therapies with animals, as they generate positive emotions and promote multisensorial interaction through the sight, hearing and touch.The use of SAR is a new tool that has shown to have benefits in terms of slowing down the progression of the disease, aiding to improving the quality of life in the elderly.