NON PHARMACOLOGICAL THERAPY OF MENTAL IMAGERY AND RELAXATION IN PATIENTS WITH MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT Poptsi Ε.,1,3, Κounti F.,1,3,Τsolaki, Μ. 1,2 1 Greek Association of Alzheimer Disease, Thessaloniki, Greece 2 School of Medicine, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece 3 Greek Association of Alzheimer Disease, Kalamaria, Greece

ANXIETY AND DEMENTIA  Increased levels of anxiety affects negatively memory and psychological health (Lupien et al., Newcomer et al., Sapolsky et al., 1986)  Anxiety is a common emotional disorder mainly in Mild Cognitive Impairment patients, in mild Alzheimer’s disease patients and in vascular dementia (Twelftree & Oazi, Ballard et al., 2000)  A nxiety reduction improve attention and memory performance (Calvin et al., 2006)

AIMS-PARTICIPANTS-METHOD AIMS:  Stress reduction  Cognitive/Functional/Emotional improvement in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment PARTICIPANTS:  15 MCI women patients, classified in experimental and control groups  Matched in age (p=0.891), education (p=0.248), emotional performance (p=0.408) and cognitive functions (p=0.077) 3 RELAXATION TECHNIQUES:  Breathing exercises  Progressive muscular relaxation  Autogenic relaxation and  Mental imagery as a cognitive rehabilitative technique NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT: a.Before b.After 6 months therapy c.Four months later

RESULTS Comparison of performance between experimental / control group Before the therapy  No statistically significant differences 6 months later Experimental group had better scores in:  Executive function (p≤0.047), memory (p≤0.040), language (p=0.036), attention (p≤0.039), general cognitive function (p≤0.037) and emotional performance (p=0.005) 4 months after the end of the therapy  No statistically significant differences Comparison of performance between 1 st, 2 nd & 3 rd assessment of the experimental group with MCI 6 months later improvement in:  Verbal memory (p= 0.016), language (p≤0.034), visual perception (p=0.031), visual memory (p=0.034), general cognitive performance (p≤0.046), depression (p≤0.031), daily function (p= 0.005) 4 months after the end of the therapy:  Further improvement in verbal memory (p=0.013), language (p≤0.016), attention (p=0.011) and psychomotor speed (p=0.017 CONCLUSSION: Depression symptoms were treated and cognitive and functional performance were improved