Music therapy is recommended in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) but only few tools exist to measure musical skills in AD patients. Our objective was to develop an assessment tool, the MOT (music therapy orientation test) designed to evaluate the musical cognitive abilities of patients and to guide the music therapy plan. This article presents the guidelines and scoring terms for all items, as well as the normal range in older patients. The MOT was administered to 50 healthy elderly subjects (mean, 74.3±8.7 years) and 50 AD patients (mean, 82.8±8.0 years). The diagnosis was based on DSM-IV consensus criteria and all patients had a MMSE score ?27/30 (mean, 16.16±6.91). The results showed an average success rate to the MOT that was lower in AD compared to cognitively healthy subjects (respectively 22.6±8.3/34 versus 32.4±1/34, p<0.0001). The MOT score was positively correlated with the MMSE score (r=0.80, p<0.001). With a threshold of 30/34, the MOT sensitivity was 74%, its specificity 96% and its positive predictive value 94.9%. Our results showed that a MOT score <30/34 is able to detect musical cognitive disabilities in AD patients. The MOT could be useful for music therapists to guide the music therapy plan.
Aged Aged, 80 and over