Aging: Cue the lights and help dementia

Aging: Cue the lights and help dementia
By Eric Nagourney
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Researchers who put brighter lights into nursing homes have found that residents with dementia appear to suffer fewer symptoms.
Improvements were modest, but the study showed a simple step that may improve life for many. The study, which appeared June 11 in The Journal of the American Medical Association, also found that giving dementia patients the hormone melatonin could help improve their sleep and mood, but only in conjunction with the increased lighting.
The researchers, led by Dr. Rixt F. Riemersma-van der Lek, spent up to three and a half years studying the effects of light and melatonin on more than 180 patients in 12 residences for the elderly in the Netherlands.
Dementia is often characterized by cognitive decline and changes in mood, sleep and activity levels. Changes in the part of the brain that helps regulate circadian rhythms may play a role.
For the study, the researchers added lights to the ceilings of some of the nursing homes. Some patients experienced brighter light, others were given melatonin, and some had both.
The light appeared to reduce cognitive declines and symptoms of depression.
Melatonin improved sleep and reduced aggression but appeared to make patients more withdrawn, although bright light appeared to take care of this.
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