[Impact of empathy doll therapy on behavioral disorders in nursing homes: the EHPADoll study].

Therapy using dolls has been shown to be beneficial in numerous international studies, but remains under-researched in France. The Melun mobile geriatric team conducted a study in nursing homes within its network to assess its impact on psychological and behavioral symptoms. An average reduction of 28.4% in the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI-ES) score was observed after one week of using the empathy doll. These results confirm the data in the literature and provide local leverage to promote the use of empathy dolls in nursing homes.