TY  - JOUR
A1  - Majic, Tomislav
A1  - Gutzmann, Hans
A1  - Heinz, Andreas
A1  - Lang, Undine E.
A1  - Rapp, Michael A.
T1  - Animal-assisted therapy and agitation and depression in nursing home residents with dementia - a matched case-control trial
JF  - The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
N2  - Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) on symptoms of agitation/aggression and depression in nursing home residents with dementia in a randomized controlled trial. Previous studies have indicated that AAT has beneficial effects on neuropsychiatric symptoms in various psychiatric disorders but few studies have investigated the efficacy of AAT in patients suffering from dementia. Methods: Of 65 nursing home residents with dementia (mean [standard deviation] age: 81.8 [9.2] years; mean Mini-Mental State Examination score: 7.1 [0.7]), 27 matched pairs (N = 54) were randomly assigned to either treatment as usual or treatment as usual combined with AAT, administered over 10 weekly sessions. Blinded raters assessed cognitive impairment with the Mini-Mental State Examination, presence of agitation/aggression with the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory, and depression with the Dementia Mood Assessment Scale at baseline and during a period of 4 weeks after AAT intervention. Results: In the control group, symptoms of agitation/aggression and depression significantly increased over 10 weeks; in the intervention group, patients receiving combined treatment displayed constant frequency and severity of symptoms of agitation/aggression (F-1,F-48 = 6.43; p <0.05) and depression (F-1,F-48 = 26.54; p <0.001). Symptom amelioration did not occur in either group. Conclusions: AAT is a promising option for the treatment of agitation/aggression and depression in patients with dementia. Our results suggest that AAT may delay progression of neuropsychiatric symptoms in demented nursing home residents. Further research is needed to determine its long-time effects.
KW  - AAT
KW  - Alzheimer disease
KW  - agitation
KW  - animal-assisted therapy
KW  - BPSD
KW  - depression
KW  - dog-assisted therapy
KW  - nursing home
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2013.03.004
SN  - 1064-7481
SN  - 1545-7214
VL  - 21
IS  - 11
SP  - 1052
EP  - 1059
PB  - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
CY  - Philadelphia
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gulbins, Erich
A1  - Palmada, Monica
A1  - Reichel, Martin
A1  - Lueth, Anja
A1  - Boehmer, Christoph
A1  - Amato, Davide
A1  - Mueller, Christian P.
A1  - Tischbirek, Carsten H.
A1  - Groemer, Teja W.
A1  - Tabatabai, Ghazaleh
A1  - Becker, Katrin Anne
A1  - Tripal, Philipp
A1  - Staedtler, Sven
A1  - Ackermann, Teresa F.
A1  - van Brederode, Johannes
A1  - Alzheimer, Christian
A1  - Weller, Michael
A1  - Lang, Undine E.
A1  - Kleuser, Burkhard
A1  - Grassme, Heike
A1  - Kornhuber, Johannes
T1  - Acid sphingomyelinase-ceramide system mediates effects of antidepressant drugs
JF  - Nature medicine
N2  - Major depression is a highly prevalent severe mood disorder that is treated with antidepressants. The molecular targets of antidepressants require definition. We investigated the role of the acid sphingomyelinase (Asm)-ceramide system as a target for antidepressants. Therapeutic concentrations of the antidepressants amitriptyline and fluoxetine reduced Asm activity and ceramide concentrations in the hippocampus, increased neuronal proliferation, maturation and survival and improved behavior in mouse models of stress-induced depression. Genetic Asm deficiency abrogated these effects. Mice overexpressing Asm, heterozygous for acid ceramidase, treated with blockers of ceramide metabolism or directly injected with C16 ceramide in the hippocampus had higher ceramide concentrations and lower rates of neuronal proliferation, maturation and survival compared with controls and showed depression-like behavior even in the absence of stress. The decrease of ceramide abundance achieved by antidepressant-mediated inhibition of Asm normalized these effects. Lowering ceramide abundance may thus be a central goal for the future development of antidepressants.
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3214
SN  - 1078-8956
VL  - 19
IS  - 7
SP  - 934
EP  - +
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - New York
ER  -