AUTHOR=Chéour Sarah , Chéour Chouaieb , Kilani Chiraz , Guemri Aymen , Zineddine Dawser , Khélifa Riadh , Supriya Rashmi , Bragazzi Nicola Luigi , Chéour Foued , Baker Julien S. , Gaied-Chortane Sabri 

TITLE=Salivary Testosterone and Cortisol Levels in Tunisian Elderly Male Patients With Mild Alzheimer’s Disease. Implications of Musical Therapy And/Or Physical Rehabilitation

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physiology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2022.839099

DOI=10.3389/fphys.2022.839099

ISSN=1664-042X

ABSTRACT=Changes in salivary testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) levels were assessed in elderly Tunisian male patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) subjected to music therapy and/or physical  rehabilitation. Male patients with mild AD (N=26; age=76.23±4.27 years; weight: 74.76±5.36 kg) were randomly assigned into 4 groups for three 60-minute sessions per week for 4 months; including Group1 or control group (Co) (n=6); Group2 (n=6), participated in physical rehabilitation (PR); Group3 (n=7), subjected to music therapy (MT) and Group4 (n=7), participated simultaneously in music therapy and physical rehabilitation (MT+PR). Salivary T levels increased (ηp2 = 0.7) and C levels decreased (ηp2 = 0.69), significantly (p < 0.001) in the PR, MT and MT+PR groups compared to the Co group respectively. Also, increases in salivary T levels and decreases in C levels in MT+PR group were greater compared to the other groups. MT increased T levels (p < 0.001) and decreased C levels (p < 0.05) to a greater extent than the PR group respectively. Changes in salivary T levels were positively (r=0.83; p < 0.001) and C levels were negatively (r=-0.86; p < 0.001) correlated in the PR, MT and MT+PR groups with changes in MMSE in AD patients. This study highlights that combination of MT and PR holds potential to treat AD.