The article “Sensory Stimulation in Dementia” discusses an alternative to handling behavioral problems in senior citizen who suffer from dementia. More often than not, older individuals with dementia will experience symptoms often attributed to psychiatric patients. These include anxiety, hostility, wandering, depression, delusions, disrupted sleep, and hallucinations. The most common form of treatment for such symptoms is either institutional care or behavioral treatment. In addition to either of these approaches, however, patients often receive drugs such as antipsychotics or other sedatives in order to alleviate the effects of the dementia. The problem here is that these neuroleptics and similar drugs almost always come with their own respective side effects, including a general decrease in quality of life. One main concern here is that patients who are receiving such drugs to control their symptoms are often the patients who are already experiencing low qualities of life as is because their dementia symptoms are generally so severe.
Other recent attempts at treatment include snoezelen, which is another name for controlled multisensory stimulation, where patients are exposed to a soothing and stimulating environment. In this environment, they will receive varied sensory stimulation in the forms of fiber optic lighting effects, color, sounds, music, or smells. The light treatment and aromatherapy have emerged as the two most promising approaches among these in the treatment of dementia. In fact, in the three most recent studies (as of 2004) of light therapy on dementia patients, the improvement of those with the real treatment far exceeded that of those with the placebo. Even more promising yet, those with the treatment experienced virtually no side effects. In regards to the aromatherapy, overall quality of living actually increased with treatment, as opposed to the detrimental decrease previously witnessed with the drugs. The two most effective essential oils for aromatherapy, according to research, seem to be lemon balm and lavender oil, and it is most effective if these agents are either applied directly to the skin or breathed in.
Perhaps one of the most promising aspects of the aromatherapy treatment is its overall tolerability by all patients. Whereas most forms of treatment for dementia can only be handled and fully carried out by about seventy percent of the participants, one-hundred percent of the aromatherapy participants were able to take part in the treatment with no side effects, and found improvement with it. It is believed that the effects of the aromatherapy take place by means of a direct chemical reaction with the body, as no massage techniques were used in the application of the scented oils. In the inhalation process, the terpenes (organic compounds) that are located in the essential oils are absorbed through the lungs and path easily through the blood-brain barrier. The exact job of these terpenes once they enter the blood system is still being researched and debated, however.
The light treatment mentioned before has been found useful in decreasing the affects of seasonal affective disorder, which is depression brought on by the change in seasons. The treatment involves sitting before a light box which gives off up to 10,000 lux of light, as opposed to the 300 lux given off by typical office light. Dementia patients have also been shown to experienced decreased restlessness and sleep disturbances when switching to this method of sensory stimulation.

Burns, A. (2002). Sensory Stimulation in Dementia. BMJ: British Medical Journal.
Retrieved April 13, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/25453072.pdf.