Treatment for agitation in dementia patients: A behavior management approach

Agitation is a crucial problem in the care of patients with Alzheimer's dis ease. Behaviors such as wandering, physical and verbal aggression, resistin g care, and arguing ape common and frequently lead to caregiver burnout and patient institutionalization. While clinical suggestions to help caregiver s deal with such problems are plentiful, no standardized approach has been published nor are controlled clinical trials available. This article presen ts a standardized, social-learning-based, behavioral approach to the treatm ent of agitation in patients with dementia. It describes a multisite, rando mized, controlled clinical trial designed to evaluate this approach and ill ustrates the use of this approach in four cases from three different sites.