Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: Considerations for Future Research in Selected Clinical Topics

In 2015, the World Health Organization announced a focus on dementia with the aims of increasing awareness of the public health challenges associated with dementia and highlighting the need for coordinated global action. Dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people around the world. Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias affect neurocognition and associated functioning, including memory, thinking, behavior, and activities of daily living. Agitation in later stages of dementia is the most significant symptom contributing to patient distress and caregiver burden. In order to reduce agitation, it is important to focus on the cause and not merely the symptoms. In spite of this, agitation is frequently treated with psychotropic medications with commonly associated severe adverse effects. A growing number of studies lend evidence indicating that music therapy interventions decrease agitation. According to the latest Cochrane review (Vink, Bruinsma, & Scholten, 2011), however, studies examined as part of the 2011 systematic review were methodologically weak, resulting in authors not being able to draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of music therapy. This paper suggests recommendations for future research focusing on the most burning issue regarding dementia – agitation – and studies that include outcome measures on agitation.