Behavioral and psychological signs and symptoms of dementia: a practicing psychiatrist's viewpoint

Alzheimer's disease typically presents with two often overlapping syndromes, one cognitive, the other behavioral. The behavioral syndrome is characterized by psychosis, aggression, depression, anxiety, agitation, and other common if less well-defined symptoms subsumed under the umbrella entity “behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia” (BPSD), itself divided into a number of subsyndromes: psychosis, circadian rhythm (sleepwake) disturbance, depression, anxiety, and agitation, it is BPSD with its impact on care providers that ultimately precipitates the chain of events resulting in long-term institutional care. The treatment challenge involves eliminating unmet medical needs (undiagnosed hip fracture and asymptomatic urinary tract infection or pneumonia). Pharmacologic intervention relies on risperidone and, increasingly cholinesterase inhibitors for the control of psychosis (but with response rates of only 65% at tolerable doses), olanzapine and risperidone for anxiety, and carbamazepine and valproic acid for agitation. However, evidence increasingly favors nonpharmacologic interventions, to the extent that these should now be considered as the foundation of BPSD treatment. Problem behaviors are viewed as meaningful responses to unmet needs in the therapeutic milieu. Because the progression and impact of BPSD varies between patients, interventions must be explored, designed, implemented, and assessed on an individual basis. They include: family support and education, psychotherapy reality orientation, validation therapy, reminiscence and life review, behavioral interventions, therapeutic activities and creative arts therapies, environmental considerations (including restraint-free facilities), behavioral intensive care units, and workplace design and practices that aid the ongoing management of professional caregiver stress.