Older adult's acceptability ratings of treatments for verbal agitation in persons with dementia.

BACKGROUND/RATIONALE: Various interventions are available to manage verbal agitation (VA), but our understanding regarding their acceptability is limited. The purpose of this study is to compare the acceptability of 3 interventions from the point of view of elderly individuals: direct interaction (DI), differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors (DRI), and risperidone (RIS).

METHODS

Participants (N = 69) evaluated the acceptability of each treatment according to the description of a fictional person who demonstrated aggressive or nonaggressive VA.

RESULTS

There is an interaction between the type of intervention and the severity of VA. For nonaggressive VA, DI is the most acceptable intervention followed by DRI and RIS. For aggressive VA, DI and DRI are more acceptable than RIS, but there is not a significant difference between them. The acceptability of each intervention is not associated with the participants' characteristics.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study highlight the acceptability of DI for managing VA.