Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia

Introduction Dementia is a syndrome which involves progressive disturbance of multiple cognitive functions, emotional control and social behaviour in clear consciousness (International Classification of Diseases, ICD-10). 1 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) accounts for more than 50% of all dementias and hence is the most widely studied. Although Alzheimer’s first description of the condition included noncognitive features like hallucinations, delusions and screaming, 2 most research has focused on the cognitive features, i.e. memory loss, perceptuo-motor skills and language disturbance.