Treatment
The aim of the management is the prevention of further cerebrovascular lesions. This includes administering antiplatelet drugs and controlling major vascular risk factors (hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, smoking and diabetes mellitus to mention a few).
The general management of dementia includes referral to community services, judgment and decision-making regarding legal and ethical issues (e.g., driving, capacity, advance directives), and consideration of caregiver stress.
Cholinesterase inhibitors such as galantamine have shown to be helpful in various randomized controlled trials. However their use is not licensed yet for this indication.
Behavioral and affective symptoms are particularly important in this patient group and deserve special consideration. These problems, if they develop, tend to be resistant to conventional psychopharmacological treatment and in many cases lead to hospital admission and placement in permanent care.
Read more about this topic: Multi-infarct Dementia
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“Our treatment of both older people and children reflects the value we place on independence and autonomy. We do our best to make our children independent from birth. We leave them all alone in rooms with the lights out and tell them, “Go to sleep by yourselves.” And the old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
“Judge Ginsburg’s selection should be a model—chosen on merit and not ideology, despite some naysaying, with little advance publicity. Her treatment could begin to overturn a terrible precedent: that is, that the most terrifying sentence among the accomplished in America has become, “Honey—the White House is on the phone.””
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)