Managing Behavioral Problems in Alzheimer's Patients

Managing common behavioral problems in dementia. How to improve quality of life for patients and families.

Dementia is the most common reason for nursing home placement, and related behavioral symptoms are the primary factors precipitating the decision. Disruptive behaviors such as depression, sleep disturbance, agitation, aggression, and psychosis can tax family members' abilities to care for a loved one who has reached that stage of the illness. Working with families to institute effective managem...

Orbitofrontal Dysfunction Discriminates Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia from Alzheimers Disease

Background: Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients show prefrontal cortex dysfunction and atrophy. Methods: We investigated whether executive function in conjunction with prefrontal cortex atrophy discriminates bvFTD and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients efficiently at presentation. Results: AD and bvFTD patients were distinguishable by 89.5% on their performance of 3 execu...

Managing patients with inexplicable health problems.

Managing problems in speaking

The problems that participants in conversation have, it is argued, are really joint problems and have to be managed jointly. The participants have three types of strategies for managing them. (1) They try to prevent foreseeable but avoidable problems. (2) They warn partners of foreseeable but unavoidable problems. And (3) they repair problems that have already arisen. Speakers and addressees co...

Cognitive status and behavioral problems in older hospitalized patients

OBJECTIVES: (a) To determine the quantity and quality of behavioral problems in older hospitalized patients on acute care units; (b) to determine the burden of these behaviors on staff; and (c) to identify predictors of behavioral problems. METHODS: Upon admission, patients performed the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and information was obtained on age, et...