With the former, blade angle and number of axial compartments had little effect on agitation in the transaxial plan but axial dispersion was enhanced by longer axial compartments.
86 The study reported significant improvement in activities but found no effect on agitation.
However, it showed less effect on agitation compared with trazodone or placebo (Lawlor et al 1994; Stoppe et al 1999).
High quality RCTs are lacking, however smaller uncontrolled and observational studies suggest effect on agitation of walking in groups [ 72] and continuous program activities including physical exercise [ 73].
A pilot study with chair-exercises did not demonstrate any effect on agitation [ 74], but this might be due to too low intensity.
The results demonstrate long-time positive effects of a high intensity functional exercise program on balance and indicate a positive effect on agitation, after an intervention period of 12 weeks followed by a detraining period of 12 weeks.
Mador and colleagues (2004) found that the nursing-based intervention had no effect on agitation, sleep, restraint and psychotropic drug use, length of stay, falls, discharge plans, nursing satisfaction, or next-of-kin satisfaction.
A Cochrane review of haloperidol compared with placebo concluded that haloperidol had no effect on agitation, behavioral symptoms as a whole, or CGIC scores, but appeared to reduce aggression (Sink et al 2005; Kozman et al 2006).
As for antidepressants, Pollock and colleagues [ 16] reported that citalopram was superior to placebo, with greatest efficacy for aggression, and, in a later study [ 17], citalopram was found to be comparable in efficacy to risperidone, differentiated by its significant effect on agitation and its superior tolerability in the treatment of moderate to severe NPS.
