Psychological treatments for depression and anxiety effective in dementia and mild cognitive impairment

Psychological treatments added to usual care reduced symptoms of depression and clinician-rated anxiety for people with dementia. It was not possible to tell whether psychological treatments had an effect on patients' quality of life, ability to perform activities of daily living, overall psychiatric symptoms or cognition, or on carers’ self-rated depressive symptoms; most studies did not measure these outcomes. The psychological treatments used were based on established psychological models, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, counselling and interpersonal psychodynamic therapy. In 2 trials, the psychological treatment was combined with other interventions. Psychological treatments for people with dementia appeared to be safe, with no adverse events reported in the literature.