BPSD contribute significantly to the overall costs of dementia care. Interventions targeted at BPSD may help to reduce the staggering societal costs of this illness.

Dementia is a progressive disorder that typically worsens with time and from which recovery is unlikely. The incidence of dementia increases exponentially with ageing and is an important public health challenge. There is now growing evidence for the role of vascular factors in Alzheimer's disease, mixed dementia (Alzheimer's disease with cerebrovascular disease), and of course vascular dementia. With the rising prevalence of vascular disease, there are increasing numbers of people who are identified to be at risk of cognitive impairment. By changing modifiable vascular risk factors, there is emerging evidence that it may be possible to prevent or delay the expression and progression of dementia.

Detrusor instability is common in men with evidence of outflow obstruction due to benign prostatic hypertrophy and typically reverses in about two thirds of patients after transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). It is also common among the elderly without outflow obstruction and may lead to urge incontinence. To determine whether TURP has an effect on detrusor instability and urge incontinence in elderly men, or whether these abnormalities are due to other age-associated changes, 12 males (mean age 80 years) with urge incontinence or frequency and urgency of micturition, and symptomatic benign prostatic hypertrophy, were studied by 24-hour monitoring of incontinence and videourodynamic examination, before and after TURP; 7/12 patients were significantly cognitively impaired. Preoperatively, all patients showed detrusor instability, which reversed postoperatively in only one patient, a significantly smaller proportion than that consistently reported in younger patients. Preoperatively, 11/12 patients were incontinent. After TURP, 8/11 patients had an improvement in the amount of incontinence, by up to 458 g in 24 hours. Those who improved had been urodynamically more severely obstructed preoperatively. Those with the most improvement were also cognitively impaired. We conclude that, in the geriatric population, detrusor instability and urge incontinence may be the result of age-associated changes and not secondary to obstruction. Detrusor instability is likely to persist following TURP. Preoperative urodynamic assessment of obstruction in the incontinent male with benign prostatic hypertrophy may be useful since the severity of incontinence responds well to TURP if there is marked obstruction. Cognitive impairment should not be a deterrent to operation.

We have examined 73 elderly incontinent patients (mean age 79 years) and 27 continent subjects (mean age 78 years) of similar cognitive status. Among the incontinent patients, 20 were shown objectively to have urge incontinence with normal bladder filling sensation, 14 had objectively demonstrated urge incontinence with reduced bladder sensation, and 39 had other types of incontinence. We compared cognitive function (by Mini-mental State Examination: MMSE) and regional brain perfusion (by SPECT scanning) in these four groups. Patients with objectively demonstrated urge incontinence and reduced bladder sensation stood out as being different from the rest: their mean MMSE score was significantly lower than that of any of the other three groups; perfusion of the frontal cortex was significantly poorer than that in the continent and other incontinent groups; global cortical perfusion was significantly poorer than in the other incontinence groups. This was not found in patients with urge incontinence and normal bladder sensation. The observations support the hypothesis that in elderly people urge incontinence with reduced bladder sensation can be a consequence of cortical neuropathy, especially in the frontal lobes.

Among the elderly, both urge incontinence and elevated residual urine are common. When they occur together, they present a challenging clinical problem, called detrusor hyperactivity with impaired contractile function (DHIC). Impaired detrusor contractility has two aspects: elevated post-void residual urine volume and reduced detrusor contraction strength. Geriatric urge incontinence, especially in combination with reduced bladder sensation, is associated with specific cortical abnormalities: frontal and global cortical underperfusion and cognitive impairment. We have investigated, in 73 elderly incontinent patients, whether either aspect of impaired contractility is associated with urge incontinence, reduced sensation or these cortical abnormalities. For post-void residual urine, there are no significant associations. Detrusor contraction strength, however, is significantly increased (not impaired) if there is urge incontinence, reduced bladder sensation, or cortical underperfusion. Thus, DHIC appears to be a coincidental occurrence of two common conditions with different etiological factors.