Calming the Agitated Demented Patient

Through this column, we hope that practitioners in general medical settings will gain a more complete knowledge of the many patients who are likely to benefit from brief psychotherapeutic interventions. A close working relationship between primary care and psychiatry can serve to enhance patient outcome.

Dr Meyer is chief of the Geriatrics and Extended Care Section, Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Administration Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, and is assistant professor of general internal medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. Dr Schuyler is a psychiatrist on the palliative care team at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Administration Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina.