Nursing Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Nursing, including details on health care, hospital staff, professional care.

Aggressive behaviour by people with dementia in residential care settings: a review.

Pulsford D, Duxbury J

Division of Mental Health, Department of Nursing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. dpulsford@uclan.ac.uk

This paper considers the phenomenon of aggressive behaviour perpetrated by people with dementia in residential care settings. Aggressive behaviour is defined in the context of people with dementia, and the problem of ascertaining the incidence of aggression among people with dementia is discussed. The emotional impact of assaults on nurses and other professionals is highlighted, and differing perspectives on the causation of aggressive behaviour are considered. Management strategies derived from the physical/pharmacological; environment management; behaviour modification and person-centred approaches are reviewed. Our conclusion is that while certain strategies appear to reflect good and common sense practice, in particular those deriving from the person-centred approach, there is no clear research evidence for the general effectiveness of any one management approach, and each has drawbacks of a practical or ethical nature. There is also little empirical information about how professional carers actually manage aggressive behaviour in practice.

Published 12 September 2006 in J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs, 13(5): 611-8.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2005-2008 Nursing Research Today. All Rights Reserved.