Comparative Efficacy of Interventions for Aggressive and Agitated Behaviors in Dementia: A Systematic Review and...

Both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions are used to treat neuropsychiatric symptoms in persons with dementia.

To summarize the comparative efficacy of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions for treating aggression and agitation in adults with dementia.

MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, and PsycINFO between inception and 28 May 2019 without language restrictions; gray literature; and reference lists scanned from selected studies and systematic reviews.

Randomized controlled trials comparing interventions for treating aggression and agitation in adults with dementia.

Pairs of reviewers independently screened studies, abstracted data, and appraised risk of bias.

After screening of 19 684 citations, 163 studies (23 143 patients) were included in network meta-analyses. Analysis of interventions targeting aggression and agitation (148 studies [21 686 patients]) showed that multidisciplinary care (standardized mean difference [SMD], -0.5 [95% credible interval {CrI}, -0.99 to -0.01]), massage and touch therapy (SMD, -0.75 [CrI, -1.12 to -0.38]), and music combined with massage and touch therapy (SMD, -0.91 [CrI, -1.75 to -0.07]) were clinically more efficacious than usual care. Recreation therapy (SMD, -0.29 [CrI, -0.57 to -0.01]) was statistically but not clinically more efficacious than usual care.

Forty-six percent of studies were at high risk of bias because of missing outcome data. Harms and costs of therapies were not evaluated.

Nonpharmacologic interventions seemed to be more efficacious than pharmacologic interventions for reducing aggression and agitation in adults with dementia.

Alberta Health Services Critical Care Strategic Clinical Network. (PROSPERO: CRD42017050130).