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Health Check: Dementia Patients’ Anxiety Eased by Movies of Their Lives

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2017/12/20 GMT

Dementia Patients’ Anxiety Eased by Movies of Their Lives

BBC World Service - Health Check, Dementia Patients’ Anxiety Eased by Movies of Their Lives

Films about lives of dementia patients help with anxiety

Watching videos of their own life stories – including old photographs and favourite songs – helps to ease anxiety in people living with dementia. Watching them also helps to bring past lives alive for the staff who look after them. Claudia Hammond went to meet one 92 year old resident and her daughter to hear about this special kind of reminiscence therapy. 

The controversial theory linking depression and a reduced rate in the creation of new brain cells – neurogenesis - is now being linked with another line of research. A third of patients with inflammation in the body – who have a heightened immune response – develop depression.  There’s now evidence that inflammation might alter the process of brain cell creation, opening up the potential new treatments. 

A listener in France emailed to ask: is coffee a drug? Some love to start their day with caffeine. Our reporter sought out some expert opinions – as well as the cappuccino and espresso-drinkers of California, to see if it helps or hinders their creativity.  

Can the children of today resist temptation? The latest results of a decades-old psychology test - where a child is offered one marshmallow now or two if they wait a while – have surprised some. 



(Photo: Getty Images)

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