Evaluating the effects of shiatsu: Reflections on a study on behavioral disorders in nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s disease

Shiatsu is a non-pharmacological intervention (NPI) involving a holistic practice of touch that considers the whole person: body, emotions, and mind. This first study is a pilot study of behavioral disorders in dependent elderly people with Alzheimer’s disease. It aimed at evaluating the effects of a series of twelve shiatsu sessions on behavioral disorders of residents in a nursing home. Behavioral disorders, vegetative disorders, and the expression of memory as a judgment criterion were evaluated using the NPI-NH. The sample was made up of 34 people: 30 women and 4 men. The comparison of the intensity of the disorders, before and after the series of sessions conducted over a fixed period of time, shows an improvement in the scores, which suggests that this practice could have some effectiveness on these behavioral disorders (productive, non-productive, vegetative) and also on memory disorders and return to speech. A discussion of the results and the methodology is conducted at the end of the study, in the hope that it will inspire further exploration of this issue.