title: Behavioural disturbances in psychiatric inpatients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type in Taiwan.
abstract: This report studied behavioural disturbances in psychiatric inpatients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) in Taiwan. The sample consisted of 75 inpatients with DAT who were consecutively admitted to the geropsychiatric ward. Their behavioural disturbances were obtained from semistructured interviews with families and ward observation. There were eight main behavioural disturbances: getting lost, repetitive phenomena, sleep disturbance, aggression, wandering, hyperphagia, hoarding behaviour, and inappropriate sexual behaviour. Number of behavioural disturbances, wandering, hyperphagia and sleep disturbance were significantly associated with the severity of cognitive impairment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001526:Behavioral Symptoms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D011595:Psychomotor Agitation / Q000453:epidemiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology