A Practical and Compassionate Guide to Sexuality & Dementia

An important new book, Sexuality and Dementia: Compassionate & Practical Strategies for Dealing with Unexpected or Inappropriate Behaviors, published in December 2013, offers a physician's candid assessment of a topic often discussed, if at all, only in hushed tones.

Reading the first chapter called to mind a colleague in aging studies, a nurse, who related to me how a tearful woman once asked her how to hire a prostitute, as her husband was in the mid-stages of dementia and constantly wanted sex. The wife as the home caregiver was, in a word, exhausted. This book recognizes that a wide range of sexual behaviors often accompany dementia.  Sexual agression is sometimes even a sign that something has changed in the individual's cognitive functioning, only later recognized as an early step in the process of dementia.

The author, Geriatric Neuropsychiatrist Douglas Wornell, is quite critical of the medical profession's approach -- or rather a frequent failure to even discuss -- the topic.  Dr. Wornell observes that "to date, patients and their partners have been virtually abandoned by an entire medical system that has provided little to help them with sexuality as it relates to dementia. Considering the numbers of people affected -- tens of thousands of people in my practice alone -- that abandonment is nothing more than shocking."

The book is written in plain terms, covering everything from the "neurobiology of sex and dementia" to the potential for medication to stimulate -- or alleviate -- the condition, while also discussing the impact of the behaviors in the home and in more formal care settings.