Effect of Home Based Nursing Interventions in Management of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Aim: This study was aimed to assess the prevalence of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) in Alzhemier's Disease (AD) and to test the effect of home based nursing interventions in management of BPSD.

Background: BPSD are usually reported by care givers as the most difficult to manage symptoms of dementia and effective treatment methods are not readily available. Non pharmacological methods which can be practiced in home situation to reduce these problems are highly necessary to ensure day to day care of the patients and to decrease the burden of care.

Method: Persons diagnosed with AD were screened for presence of BPSD using Neuro Psychiatric Inventory (NPI)and those clients with high BPSD scores were selected and allotted randomly to experimental and control group for the intervention phase of study. Specially formulated nursing intervention programme including education of care giver, behavioural intervention, environmental modification etc were given to experimental group and the effect was tested in comparison to control group which received only routine care.

Findings: Study showed that among 389 subjects screened, there was high prevalence of BPSD (84.3%). Also the intervention part of study showed significant reduction of BPSD in experimental group in contrast to control group.

Conclusions: The study highlights the significance of assessment of BPSD in all clients diagnosed with Alzhemier's Dementia. Most importantly it indicates that home based nursing intervention programme shall be systematically implemented and popularized to manage BPSD in persons with Alzheimers disease.