[The efficacy of short-term hospitalizations in family care for patients with Pick's disease].

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of short-term hospitalization on family care for patients with Pick's disease (PD). Subjects were 12 patients with clinical diagnosis of PD based on clinical and neuroimaging criteria. They were selected from 483 patients with cognitive disorders who had been admitted to our hospital from January, 1994 to September, 1995. During 1.5-month hospital stay, we gave therapeutic intervention to the patients and their care-givers. Ten patients completed the planned term (1.5 months) of hospitalization. After the discharge, 9 patients continued to visit regularly the outpatient clinic. One patient discontinued to visit us and 2 patients were admitted to psychiatric hospitals because of stereotypic thefts or disinhibitional behavior. The benefits of short-term hospitalization in family care for PD patients were; i) close observation and analysis of patients' behavior under hospitalization offering strategies of behavioral therapy; ii) adequate instruction to the care-givers for their preparation for patients' malbehavior decreasing their burden; and iii) patients' familiarization to the hospital helping for patients to maintain regular visit to the hospital and to utilize other medical and social resources.