Daytime vocal activity in institutionalized severely demented patients identified as vocally disruptive by nurses

✍ Scribed by Ingalill R. Hallberg; Anna-Karin Edberg; Åsa Nordmark; Kristina Johnsson; Astrid Norberg

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 849 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930080208

✦ Synopsis

This study aimed at exploring vocal activity in severely demented patients with vocally disruptive behaviour as identified by nurses. Continuous tape-recordings (07.00 am-07.00 pm) of the vocal activity of 33 residents in psychogeriatric wards were analysed regarding duration, level, number, type, content and direction. The activity lasted for a mean of 338.7 minutedpatient and the longest episode of each patient had a mean duration of 103.5 minutes and turned into shouting in 17 cases. The vocal activity consisted of (1) inarticulate sounds or syllables; (2) predominance of inarticulate vocal activity; (3) articulate words or sentences; (4) predominance of articulate vocal activity; and lastly (5) 'dialogue vocal activity'. No significant relationships emerged when a multiple regression analysis with type as dependent and demographic data as independent variables was applied. The vocal activity was: impossible to interpret, directed to others, responsive, or non-directed utterances. The communicative function of the words used related to need for someone, incompetence, protest, need for help, in pain and despaidfear-hence, relating to an emotionally negative content, and less often to a positive emotional content. The vocal activity seemed possible to interpret as a 'language' stemming from strong emotions mostly of a negative nature and a 'language' used in monologues which could represent a self-stimulating 'language', thus meeting the need for activity. The results indicated that patients' emotional state must be attended to.