Clinical effectiveness of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for the management of anxiety in community dwelling people living with dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Danielle Nimmons*, Narin Aker, Alice Burnand, Kelvin P. Jordan, Claudia Cooper, Nathan Davies, Jill Manthorpe, Carolyn A. Chew-Graham, Tom Kingstone, Irene Petersen, Kate Walters

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

People living with dementia commonly experience anxiety, which is often challenging to manage. We investigated the effectiveness of treatments for the management of anxiety in this population. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, and searched EMBASE, CINAHL, MEDLINE and PsycInfo. We estimated standardised mean differences at follow-up between treatments relative to control groups and pooled these across studies using random-effects models where feasible. Thirty-one studies were identified. Meta-analysis demonstrated non-pharmacological interventions were effective in reducing anxiety in people living with dementia, compared to care as usual or active controls. Specifically, music therapy (SMD–1.92(CI:−2.58,−1.25)), muscular approaches (SMD-0.65(CI:−1.02,−0.28)) and stimulating cognitive and physical activities (SMD–0.31(CI:−0.53,−0.09)). Pharmacological interventions with evidence of potential effectiveness included Ginkgo biloba, probiotics, olanzapine, loxapine and citalopram compared to placebo, olanzapine compared to bromazepam and buspirone and risperidone compared to haloperidol. Meta-analyses were not performed for pharmacological interventions due to studies’ heterogeneity. This has practice implications when promoting the use of more non-pharmacological interventions to help reduce anxiety among people living with dementia.

Original languageEnglish
Article number105507
JournalNeuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Volume157
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2024

Keywords

  • Anxiety
  • Dementia
  • Treatment

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