Primary goal

The primary goal of the present study is the 30-day efficacy of the Doll Therapy Intervention (DTI) versus a Sham Intervention (SI) on BPSD, professional caregivers’ perceived stress, patients’ physiological indices of stress, and interactive behaviours of PWD living in a nursing home. In particular, we expect an improvement in terms of a decrease in the Italian version of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Nursing Home total score (NPI-NH) [22, 23]. We also expect an improvement of professional caregivers’ perceived stress linked to BPSD of PWD in terms of a decrease in the NPI-NH Distress (NPI-NH-D) total score. Furthermore, we expect an improvement of the patients’ physiological indices of stress linked to their BPSD in terms of a decrease in the following parameters: salivary cortisol, blood pressure (systolic and diastolic) and heart rate, which are well-known biomarkers of acute stress. Finally, we expect an improvement of the patients’ interactive behaviours towards the object (doll) in terms of an increase in the number and duration of exploratory and caregiving behaviours.