Jornal Internacional de Saúde Mental de Emergência e Resiliência Humana

Abstrato

Psychological and Behavioral Disorders in Dementia

Sales A, Mayordomo T, Redondo R, Torres M and Bendicho J

The psychological and behavioral symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are the most worrisome symptoms because they significantly affect the patient and his/her family or main caregivers. However, they are classically the symptoms that have received less attention. Specifically, BPSD include a variety of manifestations, such as physical aggressiveness, shouting, restlessness, agitation, erratic wandering, hyperactivity, culturally inappropriate behaviors, sexual disinhibition, abuse, inappropriate language, following another person around, etc. (Finkel, 1998). In fact, this symptomatology has a high degree of frequency and is present in at least 50 to 90% of patients (Steele, Rovner, Chase & Folstein, 1996; Mega, Cummings, Fiorello & Gornbein, 1996). Nevertheless, there is great variability in the percentages published, which shows the difficulty of estimating their prevalence.