How to Manage Dementia in General Practice

How to Manage Dementia in General Practice is anessential practical guide for all GPs and health professionalsinvolved in the treatment and management of patients withdementia.

The authors provide guidance through every aspect of the condition;from how to reliably and quickly identify types of dementia, toinitiating and adjusting appropriate treatments. They offerpractical help with the host of issues which often accompany casesof dementia, such as chronic conditions and comorbidities, and thesometimes complex relationships of spouses andrelatives. 

The authors give clear advice on the complicated legal issuessurrounding dementia and explain in detail how GPs can reliablyassess capacity, including testamentary capacity, and potentialdeprivation of liberty. They provide a practical approach on whento refer, when not to refer, and how to access the most appropriatecommunity and social services for each patient. Real GP– basedexamples and case histories are used throughout to illustrate keypoints and decision making.

How to Manage Dementia in General Practice is for all GPs,GP registrars, geriatricians and primary health care professionalswanting to provide better care for patients with dementia and theirfamilies.

This excellent book by authors who combine a first classclinical specialism with ongoing research into the field can behighly recommended. It will appeal both to the younger GP startingtheir career, the GP in training, and the more mature practitionerwho perhaps feels the newer challenges of managing these complexpatients. Dr Neil D Arnott, General Practitioner, SevenOaks and an Examiner of the Royal College of General Practitioners,London, UK

How to manage Dementia covers all the key aspects ofthe disease, but most importantly it also offers GPs the tools tomanage their patients to best effect. Professor PaulFrancis PhD, Professor of Neurochemistry and Director of Brains forDementia Research, Wolfson Centre for Age–Related Diseases, King′sCollege London, UK

About the authors, vii

GP s Foreword by Dr Neil Arnott, ix

Neuroscience Foreword by Professor Paul Francis, xi

Acknowledgement, xiv

Introduction, 1

Chapter 1 Diagnosing dementia in general practice, 4

Chapter 2 Complex pictures of dementia, 25

Chapter 3 Initiating, monitoring and adjusting dementiatreatments, 41

Chapter 4 Emergency management of dementia, 53

Chapter 5 Managing families, 72

Chapter 6 Using the multidisciplinary team, 86

Chapter 7 Capacity, consent and deprivation of liberty, 100

Chapter 8 Choosing a residential home, 115

Chapter 9 Research, developments and media coverage, 122

Chapter 10 GP questions answered, 133

Appendix Recommended further reading, 142

Index, 145

Nicholas Clarke, Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry, MD inNeurochemistry and Visiting Research Fellow at King sCollege, London, UK

Farine Clarke, General Practitioner, Former Deputy Editorof Pulse Newspaper and Editor and Editorial Director of GPnewspaper, UK

Denzil Edwards, Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry, Kentand Medway NHS Trust, UK