JAMA: 2012-11-21, Vol. 308, No. 19, Author in the Room™ Audio Interview

Interview with Laura N. Gitlin, PhD, author of Nonpharmacologic Management of Behavioral Symptoms in Dementia. Summary Points: Attending to behavioral symptoms is part of comprehensive dementia care and requires ongoing long-term management. Use 6 steps to systematically prevent, assess, manage, eliminate or reduce behavioral symptoms. Use combination of nonpharmacologic approaches. Keep trying—nonpharmacologic approaches are relatively adverse free. Create a health professional team to offset time needed for provision of nonpharmacologic approaches.