Prevalence and Management of Behavioural and Psychiatric Symptoms on a Continuing Care Unit for Patients with Dementia

OBJECTIVES: With the increasing concerns over the safety of some pharmacological interventions or lack of sufficient evidence of effectiveness in managing neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia, there is a constant need to review how such patients are managed. This study looks at the prevalence and management of behavioural and psychiatric symptoms amongst patients with dementia in a National Health Service (NHS) continuing care unit. METHOD: In this study, a survey of all 50 patients admitted to a longstay NHS-funded dementia care unit was carried out. The socio-demographic details along with severity of dementia, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and medication were obtained on all the patients. FINDINGS: All 50 patients were prescribed some form of medication for either physical and/or mental health reasons. Only five (10%) patients were not prescribed any form of psychotropic medication. A lack of non-pharmacological treatment options for the treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms was evident in the unit with only one occupational therapist available. CONCLUSION: Effective management of severe behavioural and psychiatric symptoms in dementia is challenging even in a NHS continuing care dementia unit due to the absence of clear benefit from pharmacological interventions and lack of resources for optimum non-pharmacological interventions.