Guideline 3: Dementia

Because this piece does not have an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

We asked the experts which conditions need to be addressed before intervening with antipsychotic drugs in an agitated older patient with dementia. The experts considered delirium the single most important condition to address (94% first line), followed by agitated depression (88% first line); 60% or more of the experts also gave first-line ratings to pain, dysuria, dyspnea, and abdominal discomfort, and 50% gave first-line ratings to pruritus.

The experts’ first-line recommendation for treating agitated dementia with delusions was an antipsychotic drug alone; they would also consider combining a mood stabilizer with an antipsychotic.’ ‹