In past years, psychiatric medication was routinely used to treat agitation, but now tends to be discouraged since benzodiazepines and antipsychotics increase cognitive decline (Bierman, Comijs, Gundy, Sonnenberg, Jonker, and Beekman, 2007), and antipsychotics cause excess mortality and are of limited efficacy (Maher, Maglione, Bagley, Suttorp, Hu, Ewing, et al., 2011). …show more content…
This suggests that CBT in an adapted form could be used with adult populations with dementia. Paukert et al. (2010) developed Peaceful Mind, a CBT intervention for anxiety and dementia, finding reductions in anxiety, depression and carer distress in a study with eight individuals. This study, among others (Spector et al., 2012), suggest that CBT in people with dementia is feasible, although specific approaches to treating agitation are