A Psychiatry Advisor report discusses the non-medication and pharmacotherapy treatments available for Alzheimer’s patients with sleep disorders.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is associated with sleep disturbances among 25% to 35% of individuals with the illness.1 Sleep disorders in AD result in significant caregiver distress, increased health care costs and increased rates of institutionalization.2,3
AD related sleep complaints include sleep fragmentation, increased sleep latency (time taken to go to sleep), nocturnal wandering and increased daytime sleepiness.4 Many patients with AD also experience ‘sun downing’, which is confusion and agitation in the late afternoon and evening which decreases during daylight hours.5
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