Non-pharmacological management for patients with frontotemporal dementia: a systematic review.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by changes in behavior and language caused by focal degeneration of the frontal and anterior temporal lobes. The behavioral symptoms are distressing to patients and their caregivers. Non-pharmacological management is important as no disease-specific pharmacological treatment for FTD is currently available. The primary objective is to review the literature on non-pharmacological management for FTD and to propose directions for future research, with reference to findings. A search was performed using PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE. Search terms included "frontotemporal dementia", and words related to non-pharmacological management, and it identified a total of 858 articles. Results revealed that very few randomized controlled trials exist on non-pharmacological management interventions for FTD. These interventions have been proposed by literature based on clinical experience. A small number of studies have supported behavioral management techniques that exploit disease-specific behaviors and preserved functions in patients with FTD, along with the management of caregivers' distress. These limitations warrant well-designed large-scale research to examine effects of non-pharmacological interventions on behavioral symptoms of FTD.
Department of Psychiatry, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Shunichiro
S
Shinagawa
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Geriatric Mental Health Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada Multimodal Imaging Group - Research Imaging Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Shinichiro
S
Nakajima
Multimodal Imaging Group - Research Imaging Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Eric
E
Plitman
Geriatric Mental Health Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada Multimodal Imaging Group - Research Imaging Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Ariel
A
Graff-Guerrero
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Masaru
M
Mimura
Department of Psychiatry, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Kazuhiko
K
Nakayama
Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Bruce L
BL
Miller
D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019468:Disease Management; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans
Behavioral management; caregiver support; environmental strategies; non-pharmacological interventions in frontotemporal dementia