Complementary and integrative approaches to dementia.

This is a review that evaluates complementary and alternative approaches to dementia and places them into an integrative framework. While many therapies in popular use have yet to be supported by "best-evidence" trials or meta-analysis, conventional treatments for dementia are clearly suboptimal. This encourages both health care providers and patients' families to expand their search for options for this difficult condition. We provide an indepth review of mind-body and biologic therapies that have been studied or are in use for Alzheimer disease to provide a context for the busy clinician along with levels of evidence supporting them. Several principles emerge: the need for holism of care, support for care providers, the importance of social engagement and behavioral interventions, and the limited role of medication, nutriceuticals, and botanicals. Without dramatic and well-proven therapies, we find there is hope for the future in clinical care and research advances based on a number of promising therapies we describe.