Evidence-based Dementia Practice

Book excerpt: The era of therapeutic nihilism in dementia has ended, with the emergence of agents for symptomatic treatment, those that delay the course of the disease or prevent the onset of dementia, and new methods to manage symptoms. With the expansion of therapies, there is a clear danger of being overwhelmed by the volume of data. This book is designed to collect this information, distil what is relevant and reliable, and present it in a format that is useful to clinicians who manage and treat people with dementia. The book is designed to bring together the latest, best and practical evidence on all aspects of management, from diagnosis and therapy to social and ethical considerations. The editors are all dynamic clinicians involved in the care of patients with dementia and the evaluation of therapies. Two of the editors are the leaders of the Cochrane Collaboration for the examination of therapies for dementia. There are no other books that take such a practical and problem-oriented or approach to the diagnosis and management of dementia. Furthermore none but this can be described as truely evidence-based.