Institutional respite care: benefits and risks for dementia patients and caregivers.

Thirty-seven dementia patients and their caregivers were studied before and after a two-week in-hospital respite stay. Institutional respite care did not alter behavior problems in dementia patients, nor did changes in performance of activities of daily living (ADLs) by Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients exceed those expected from disease progression. Caregivers exhibited an improvement in burden and depression during the respite study, but levels returned to baseline following the patient's return home.