In a study of 17 retired boxers, Johnson [ 26] described four different 'organic psychosyndromes': cognitive problems with progressive dementia, behavioral issues related to 'morbid jealousy', behavioral issues related to rage and personality disorders, and mood and behavioral disturbance related to persistent psychosis.
In our report, Dementia: ethical issues, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics sets out an ethical framework to underpin a number of recommendations that will hopefully move us in this direction, driving changes in the way we approach decision-making, health and social care and research in relation to dementia.
That's when I realized I had accidentally written an important resource for Alzheimer's caregivers that also includes a love story rather than a love story that just happens to illustrate solutions to several dementia caregiving issues.
The literature supports the use of an integrated multidisciplinary approach when dealing with complex multifactorial dementia-related issues, such as co-morbidities [ 101], eating and nutrition [ 71], and palliative care [ 102].
The ongoing experience with the single interventions and with the use of the GMA-D model in Italy shows interesting confirmations from a clinical point of view regarding the management of dementia-related issues.
Psychological and physical health of patients, taboos about dementia, a number of practical issues and, crucially, the perceived lack of benefit need to be addressed before screening would be acceptable to the population.
Screening asymptomatic individuals for dementia raises complex issues and a number of factors impact on its acceptability.
The reduction in use of antipsychotic drugs is particularly noteworthy: nearly 40 percent of nursing home residents with dementia and behavior issues are given antipsychotic drugs with no diagnosis appropriate to their use.
Although our results did not demonstrate a significant effect of structured group reminiscence therapy on overall behavior competency or on physical functioning in elders with dementia, we identified issues related to future implementation of this intervention, such as study power, chosen outcome measures, intervention dose, timing of outcome measures, or cultural applicability issues.
The NYUCI is carried out by a counsellor with a Masters in Social Work (MSW) degree who has experience in dementia and caregiving issues.
