Music, Art, and Recreational Therapies in the Treatment of Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Historically, the arts and humanities were seldom recognized for their capacity to advance health care and promote quality of life within the fields traditionally reserved for the “hard sciences.” There has been little vision of the powerful analytic and therapeutic applications offered by the myriad of art forms (Rugh & Buckwalter, 1989, unpublished manuscript). However, in recent years, we have seen an increased awareness of the potential value of music, art, and other recreational therapies in persons with dementia. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the most current research in this area. Studies on the use of music and other recreational therapies in patients with dementia are summarized in Table 1.