An 88-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease had spent about a year with agitation, repetitive speech, anxiety, and disturbed sleep that medication had only partly controlled. Then, during a household rearrangement, she came across a doll that had belonged to her granddaughter as a child.
She took to it right away, cradling, rocking and singing to it. Within days, her agitation eased and her sleep improved. When she was offered other dolls, she would have nothing to do with them.
