Pharmacologic treatment of agitation in dementia: a comprehensive review

Agitated behaviors are a common and nearly universal occurrence among patients suffering from dementing illnesses. The pharmacologic treatments available for this troubling syndrome are varied, but treatment studies are limited. Clinicians are frequently faced with the challenging management of patients with disruptive behavior who fail to respond to trials with multiple agents. This review summarizes available treatment studies of agitation in dementia and offers a guide to therapy and management. Reports of therapies for agitation in dementia are limited by lack of controlled studies, variability of diagnostic criteria and outcome measures, and small sample size. The need for carefully designed, well-controlled studies of outcome in this growing population is formidable. It is imperative to identify effective and well-tolerated treatment strategies to reduce the morbidity of these distressing and burdensome symptoms.