Neuropsychological outcome of cognitive training in mild to moderate dementia: A randomized controlled trial

Effectiveness of a 12-week cognitive training (CT) programme for community-dwelling patients with dementia was evaluated on various cognitive functions (attention, memory, executive functions and reasoning) and psychological well-being (PWB). A single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in adult day care centres in Helsinki, Finland. Participants (N = 147) were older individuals with mild to moderate dementia living at home and attending day care (mean age 83 years, 72% female, 63% at mild stage of dementia). The intervention group (n = 76) received systematic CT for 45 min twice a week while the control group (n = 71) attended day care as usual. The cognitive and psychological outcomes were measured at baseline, and followed up at 3 and 9 months. No differences between the two groups in changes of any of the cognitive functions, or PWB over time were found. We observed a positive trend at 3 months in the change for PWB favouring the intervention group, but no significant interaction effect was found (p = .079; d = -0.31). Thus, systematic CT appears to have no effect on neuropsychological outcomes of cognitive functioning and PWB in older adults who already have dementia.