Commentary on “High Occurrence of Psychiatric Disorders and Suicidal Behavior Across Dementia Subtypes”

The presence of psychiatric issues in dementia is not a recent discovery. Over a century ago, Alois Alzheimer described prominent psychotic symptoms in the first recorded case of Alzheimer's disease (AD).1 The hypernym, ‘behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia’ (BPSD) only emerged within the past two decades due to increasing recognition that psychiatric symptoms and behaviors that occur in dementia are important targets for intervention.1 Rather than a precise definition, BPSD subsumes numerous mood and behavior symptoms with no assumptions about the etiology.
Source: The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Tags: INVITED PERSPECTIVE Source Type: research