Abstract
Life expectancy increases neurological and psychiatric pathology in the elderly. Neurocognitive disorders have an increasing incidence and therefore Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia become a common pathology. Delirium is a quite frequent symptom in general practice and managing agitation in elders can become challenging for the doctor, especially because of presence of comorbidity and sometimes of paradoxical reactions due to cerebral vulnerability. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are a challenge in management of patients with neurodegenerative disorders, being a real burden for patients themselves, caregivers and medical staff. A concise guide for managing these symptoms with non-pharmacological methods and drugs allowed in such conditions
Highlights
The spectrum of neuropsychiatric symptoms is very wide, with positive and negative symptoms, and incidence correlates with severity of the disease, almost 95% of patients with dementia developing behavioral and psychological symptoms during the course of the disease [1,2], such as:
DICE (Describe, Investigate, Create and Evaluate) approach is a step by step plan to manage these patients, involving non-pharmacological and drug interventions [5]
Any psychological changes in the behavior of a dementia patient has to be closely monitored and checked for any external factors that can lead to escalation, trying to correct reversible factors
Summary
The spectrum of neuropsychiatric symptoms is very wide, with positive and negative symptoms, and incidence correlates with severity of the disease, almost 95% of patients with dementia developing behavioral and psychological symptoms during the course of the disease [1,2], such as: Some symptoms that patients might have can get very unpleasant for caregivers [3], such as: There is no need to aggressive treat all behaviors symptoms, as they are considered benign:
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