Elena Guseva, PhD(c)
(514) 483-2121 (2364)
elena.guseva@mail.mcgill.ca
Elena is now in her fourth year of graduate studies in the Family Medicine program at McGill University. She received her BFA in Art Education and Psychology and MA in Creative Arts Therapies from Concordia University in 2017. Elena is a member of the American Art Therapy Association. Her interdisciplinary background stems from her continued interest in therapeutic work with dementia populations.
Working under the supervision of Dr. Machelle Wilchesky, Elena aims to establish art therapy as an effective and safe non-pharmacological option for the management of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia patients. Cognitive decline accompanied by visual pathology, specifically in the Alzheimer’s type of dementia, restricts the range and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions that can be employed for people with advanced stages of the disease. Elena’s project involves the development and assessment of visually enhanced dementia adapted art therapy interventions by collecting neuropsychological data using wearable devices. This project will overcome a well- documented limitation of past studies: the difficulty associated with quantifying intervention effects given the communication challenges inherent to participants with advanced dementia.
“Physiological responses in persons living with dementia to visually supported art therapy directed on neuropsychiatric symptoms reduction: assessing efficacy of intervention using wearable sensor technology.”, Elena Guseva, PhD Student
Background: Art therapy (AT) can be beneficial in reducing neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in people with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As the disease progresses, however AD-related visual deficits, however, reduces the feasibility of using AT in the absence of visual adaptations. Furthermore, scientific evaluations of AT intervention effectiveness have questionable validity given that outcomes have historically relied exclusively on subjective (observational) and not objective outcome measures. Physiological signals provided by wearable sensor technology (WST) can potentially quantify AT intervention effects among individuals who are unable to communicate verbally and support existing observational assessment techniques to assess NPS in this population.
Objectives: My overarching aims are to: 1) Examine AT as a non-pharmacological option for NPS reduction in PLwD; 2) Present evidence on the use of WST for identification and monitoring of NPS in the dementia population. The objectives of my PhD dissertation publications are to:
- Present personal reflections on the use of AT in dementia care and obstacles that the field currently experiences in dementia-related research and evidence-based practice (published: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07421656.2019.1564613 );
- Conduct a systematic review to assess efficacy and effectiveness of AT for NPS reduction in PLwD by dementia severity;
- Conduct a systematic review to assess validity, feasibility, and acceptability of WST for detection and monitoring of NPS in PLwD (by dementia severity); and
- Present a protocol for a pilot randomized cross-over trial that uses WST to assess and compare efficacy of AT interventions with and without visual support for agitation/aggression and apathy reduction in persons with moderate and advanced Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Methods: According to the objectives, two systematic reviews will be conducted using data from the following databases: 1) ALOIS, CENTRAL (Cochrane Library), Medline, EMDASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO (Objective 1); 2) Health sciences databases: Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE Classic+ EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus. Engineering databases: Compendex and IEEE Xplore (Objective 2). Evidence from the two literature reviews will be integrated into the randomized cross-over pilot protocol.
Anticipated Results: I expect to demonstrate that AT has potential as an effective and appropriate psychosocial intervention for NPS reduction in persons living the moderate to advanced Alzheimer’s disease when external supports, such as adaptations to visuoperceptial changes, are made. I also expect to demonstrate that the use of WST has potential to assist in the identification and monitoring of NPS for PLwD. This would overcome the challenges associated with the assessment of the effects of psychosocial interventions (such as AT) aimed at reducing NPS in this population.
Implications of the Research: I expect that my interdisciplinary research will integrate art therapy, neuroscience and psychogeriatrics. This will be the first AT study to examine scientific evidence that can be used to inform and support AT interventions aimed at NPS reduction in dementia.
