| Abstract: | This study was to determine the impact of different pharmacological
treatments on cognitive functions and the severity of the behavioral and psychological
symptoms (BPSD) in elderly patients with dementia. Methods: The
study was a prospective, and observational study. We examined 70 older patiens
with dementia with the Mini-Mental Status examination (MMSE) and the Neuropsychiatric
Inventory (NPI) Scale at each time of the outpatient visits at the 1st,
4th, and 12th week, to fi nd out the impacts of antipsychotic drugs, mood stabilizers/antidepressants,
hypno-sedative, and cognitive enhancers/anti-dementia drugs.
Results: The majority of dementia types were Alzheimer’s dementia (AD, n = 40,
57.1%) and vascular dementia (VaD, n = 28, 40%). The caregivers were their
spouses (n = 10, 14.3%), or children (n = 53, 75.7%). We found that psychotropic
medications, 27 (38.6%) of the patients used antipsychotic drugs, 25 (35.7%)
mood stabilizers/antidepressants, 27 (38.6%) hypno-sedatives, and 48 (68.6%)
cognitive enhancers/anti-dementia drugs. Those medications did not show any signifi
cant improvements of the MMSE at 12th weeks. Mood stabilizers/antidepressants
reached a signifi cant decrease in both the NPI severity and the caregiver
distress scores. Conclusion: In this study, we found that patients with BPSD, receiving
antipsychotics, mood stabilizers/antidepressants, hypno-sedative and cognitive
enhancers/anti-dementia drugs did not improve the MMSE scores at the end
of study, but that those receiving mood stabilizer/antidepressants showed a signifi -
cant decrease on the behavioral disturbances measured by the NPI scale. |
