Behavioural disturbances in psychiatric inpatients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type in Taiwan

• Published in: International journal of geriatric psychiatry Vol. 12; no. 9; pp. 902 - 906
• Main Authors: Hwang, Jen-Ping, Yang, Cheng-Hung, Tsai, Shih-Jen, Liu, King-Ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.09.1997; Wiley
• Subjects: Aged; Alzheimer Disease - epidemiology; Behavioral Symptoms - epidemiology; behavioural disturbances; Biological and medical sciences; Chi-Square Distribution; Cognition Disorders - epidemiology; Cross-Sectional Studies; dementia of the Alzheimer's type; Feeding and Eating Disorders - epidemiology; Female; Geriatrics; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Orientation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychomotor Agitation - epidemiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Severity of Illness Index; Sleep Wake Disorders - epidemiology; Social Behavior Disorders - etiology; Taiwan - epidemiology; Asia; Taiwan; Human; Nervous system diseases; Crosscultural study; Cognitive disorder; Alzheimer disease; Central nervous system disease; Interindividual comparison; Degenerative disease; Severity score; Elderly; Cerebral disorder; Behavioral disorder
• ISSN: 0885-6230; 1099-1166
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1166(199709)12:9<902::AID-GPS660>3.0.CO;2-Q

This report studied behavioural disturbances in psychiatric inpatients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) in Taiwan. The sample consisted of 75 inpatients with DAT who were consecutively admitted to the geropsychiatric ward. Their behavioural disturbances were obtained from semistructured interviews with families and ward observation. There were eight main behavioural disturbances: getting lost, repetitive phenomena, sleep disturbance, aggression, wandering, hyperphagia, hoarding behaviour, and inappropriate sexual behaviour. Number of behavioural disturbances, wandering, hyperphagia and sleep disturbance were significantly associated with the severity of cognitive impairment. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.