skip to content
Dovepress - Open Access to Scientific and Medical Research
View our mobile site

8852

Optimal management of Alzheimer’s disease patients: Clinical guidelines and family advice

Review

(2461) Views  (1031) Full article downloads

Authors: Julia Haberstroh, Harald Hampel, Johannes Pantel

Published Date May 2010 Volume 2010:6(1) Pages 243 - 253
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S7106

Julia Haberstroh, Harald Hampel, Johannes Pantel

Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine & Psychotherapy, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, a.M., Germany

Abstract: Family members provide most of the patient care and administer most of the treatments to patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Family caregivers have an important impact on clinical outcomes, such as quality of life (QoL). As a consequence of this service, family caregivers suffer high rates of psychological and physical illness as well as social and financial burdens. Hence, it is important to involve family caregivers in multimodal treatment settings and provide interventions that are both suitable and specifically tailored to their needs. In recent years, several clinical guidelines have been presented worldwide for evidence-based treatment of AD and other forms of dementia. Most of these guidelines have considered family advice as integral to the optimal clinical management of AD. This article reviews current and internationally relevant guidelines with emphasis on recommendations concerning family advice.

Keywords: caregivers, management, quality of life, treatment








Readers of this article also read:

Optimizing economic outcomes in the management of COPD
Cobalamin deficiency, hyperhomocysteinemia, and dementia
Recurrent schizophrenia-like psychosis as first manifestation of epilepsy: a diagnostic challenge in neuropsychiatry
Current trends in drug treatment of obsessive–compulsive disorder
Trazodone effects on [3H]-paroxetine and α2-adrenoreceptors in platelets of patients with major depression
Brain amyloid β protein and memory disruption in Alzheimer’s disease
Insight in bipolar disorder: relationship to episode subtypes and symptom dimensions
Could lysine supplementation prevent Alzheimer’s dementia? A novel hypothesis
Alleviating neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia: the effects of Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761®. Findings from a randomized controlled trial
Clinical features and multidisciplinary approaches to dementia care