Most with dementia not treated

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Sixty percent of people with dementia or pre-dementia in Indiana -- representative of the United States -- are not recognized as having the condition.

Researchers in Indiana said that patients with mild cognitive impairment are not recognized as having the conditions when they go to a hospital and 80 percent are not recognized as having dementia or pre-dementia by their primary care physicians.

As a result less than 10 percent receive medications appropriate to their level of cognitive impairment and approximately a quarter receive medications which are inappropriate.

"Nationwide, the healthcare system is not delivering good dementia care because we have not presented a comprehensive assessment of the biopsychosocial needs of a person with dementia and have not followed up with solutions that are sensitive to local community needs and resources," geriatrician Dr. Malaz Boustani, of the Indiana University School of Medicine, said in a statement.

"Eight out of 10 individuals with dementia living in the community have significant behavioral and/or psychological symptoms that require medical and psychological care."

Family caregivers have been largely ignored in spite of the fact that they provide millions of unpaid care hours per year -- 180 million hours valued at $1.7 trillion in Indiana in 2005.