Educational Programs for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Abstract

As we cannot stop disease progression of neurodegenerative diseases, we have to consider neurodegenerative diseases as life-threatening illnesses and the objects of palliative care. Neurodegenerative disease patients and their families usually do not have much information about their diseases and often cannot choose their treatment and care options on their own. Before applying the principles of palliative care to the patients and their families, we have to give appropriate information about their diseases to them. But there were few educational interventions in neurodegenerative disease patients and their families and also few studies investigating the knowledge they had. Moreover all but one was the educational interventions for demented patients. All reports about the educational interventions in neurodegenerative diseases showed that the simple educational interventions might not reduce the burdens on the families, and one report for extrapyramidal diseases and cerebellar degenerations moreover showed that the simple educational interventions could not change the courses of natural degradation of the diseases and might produce depressive reaction, to the patients. In order to reduce the burdens of the families we have to support the families with physically, and in order to encourage the patients to accept their diseases we have to control their depressions and approach to them with the principles of palliative care.