Dementia-related behaviors in Alzheimer's disease and AIDS

In both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AIDS, family members vary in their perceptions of the individual's ability to control his or her cognitive or behavioral functioning. Family members who believe that the behaviors are unintentional generally experience less distress than do family members who believe that the individual has control over his or her thoughts or behaviors. The manifestations of intellectual and cognitive dysfunction of AD and AIDS are strikingly similar. Impairments of memory, concentration, and abstract thinking; confusion and disorientation; and slowed mental capacities are among the shared symptomatology, and may eventually become the catalysts for family caregiving. It is imperative that clinicians and researchers collaborate in further investigation in order to ease the burden on family caregivers and facilitate adaptations of caregiving methods.