ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Healthcare Professions Education
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1573251
This article is part of the Research TopicChallenges and Innovations in Healthcare Management and Long-Term Care for an Aging SocietyView all 13 articles
General Practitioners' and Medical Students' Current Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Dementia
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
- 2Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB), Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- 3Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
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AbstractBackground: General practitioners in Germany infrequently prescribe effective non-pharmacological interventions for dementia patients. The aim of this study was to investigate general practitioners’ education, knowledge, and experiences as well as attitudes toward non-pharmacological interventions to identify potential strategies for increasing treatment quality.Methods: Medical students (N = 115) and practitioners (N = 19) responded to an online survey about the content of their medical studies regarding dementia and two non-pharmacological interventions, occupational therapy and behavioral therapy. Additionally, practitioners (N = 41) rated their assessment and usage of non-pharmacological interventions compared to pharmacological therapy for individuals with dementia. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with general practitioners (N = 12) to determine the context factors, beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes influencing prescription decisions.Results: Non-pharmacological interventions seem to be highly underrepresented in medical education. Pharmacological therapy is reported to be used more often, despite possible negative side effects and despite the proven effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatment. The general practitioners’ attitudes toward behavioral and occupational therapy were heterogeneous, but uncertainty was prevalent regarding budget regulations, and reservations to allocate resources to individuals with dementia became apparent.Conclusions: To help more people with dementia and their caregivers benefit from the positive effects of non-pharmacological interventions, general practitioners need to be better informed about these treatment options.
Keywords: Dementia, Primary Care, non-pharmacological interventions, Occupational Therapy, Behavioral therapy - cognitive
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 27 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Frankenstein, Pickard, Franikowski and Jahn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lou Louise Frankenstein, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
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