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A Case Study in Sweden: The Need for Person-Centred Methods in the Care of Dementia Patients with Severe Aggressive Behaviour

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Personality and Brain Disorders

Part of the book series: Contemporary Clinical Neuroscience ((CCNE))

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on giving an overview of the current care of dementia patients with very severe to extreme behavioural and psychological symptoms (BPSD), particularly aggressive behaviour. We start with an authentic case which will be the heart of this chapter. We also discuss the pharmacological treatment that is often still used, even though side effects are common and may make the symptoms of BPSD even more problematic. The chapter continues discussing person-centred methods in relation to dementia patients with very severe to extreme BPSD. We expected to find answers in the literature on how to manage severe or extreme BPSD and aggression in a person-centred way, but this proved to be difficult. As a conclusion, we offer a discussion on how future care might improve for this group of patients.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Tom is not his real name.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Lil Carleheden-Ottosson for proofreading the manuscript. Thanks also to Anna Lengstedt for consultancy on the pharmacological section.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Blekinge Center of Competence, Region Blekinge, Karlskrona, Sweden

    Ulrika Harris, Inger Jönsson & Cecilia Fagerström

  2. Linnaeus University, Department of Health and Caring Sciences, Växjö, Sweden

    Cecilia Fagerström

Authors
  1. Ulrika Harris
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  2. Inger Jönsson
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  3. Cecilia Fagerström
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulrika Harris .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Blekinge Center for Competence, Region Blekinge, Karlskrona, Sweden

    Danilo Garcia

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Trevor Archer

  3. Department of Pharmacology, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA

    Richard M. Kostrzewa

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Harris, U., Jönsson, I., Fagerström, C. (2019). A Case Study in Sweden: The Need for Person-Centred Methods in the Care of Dementia Patients with Severe Aggressive Behaviour. In: Garcia, D., Archer, T., Kostrzewa, R.M. (eds) Personality and Brain Disorders. Contemporary Clinical Neuroscience. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90065-0_7

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