There are significant differences in the management of dementia with and without neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in an emergency room setting, a recent study found. Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study that involved the medical and psychiatric emergency departments of a tertiary academic medical center. Participants included patients aged ≥65 years with dementia who presented between February 1, 2012, and July 16, 2014 (n=347). Subjects with documented NPS (n=78) were compared with a group of subjects without documented NPS (n=78) randomly selected from the overall group with dementia. They found:

• Patients with NPS were more likely to have additional diagnostic testing performed and receive psychotropic medications.
• Significantly fewer patients with NPS (59.0%) returned to their original setting from the emergency department than patients without NPS (76.9%).
• Among patients with NPS, those who had a motor disturbance were more likely to receive psychotropic medications than patients who did not have a motor disturbance.
• Patients with depression/dysphoria or anxiety were more likely to be psychiatrically hospitalized.