OBJECTIVES: Various behavioural symptoms occur during the course of dementia. Despite, many previous studies have demonstrated the global influence of behavioural symptoms on the total cost of care, the influence of individual behavioural symptoms on individual resource use remains unclear. The objective of the study was to determine which symptom has more influence on which resource use, looking if some symptoms or groups of symptoms are often associated with a higher use of resources. METHODS: This study was an analysis of a cohort including 349 dementia patients living in France. The follow-up of patients consists in one demographic and clinical questionnaire at baseline and resources use questionnaires at baseline, 6 months and 12 months. The resource use will be described in general population and then according to the presence or absence of behavioural symptoms. RESULTS: Description of resources use in general population was consistent with what was observed in other studies (on average 3 GP visits, 1 specialist visit, 4 physiotherapist visits, 1 psychologist visit and 30 nurse visits during the last quarter), which seems to validate data collection. At the opposite, we noticed a significant influence of some behavioural symptoms on long-term health care i.e. antipsychotic treatments and social services. Actually, antipsychotic treatments were more frequent on patients with delusion (+26%), hallucination (+25%), agitation (+13%) or irritability (+10%). The proportion of patients in home for elderly was higher in patients with delusion (+23%), hallucination (+20%), agitation (+11%) and anxiety (+11%). CONCLUSION: No obvious influence of specific behavioural symptoms on acute care like hospitalisation was shown; it could be easily explained by the delay between behavioural and resource use assessments. Behavioural symptoms as delusion, hallucination and agitation were the symptoms the most frequently associated with long-term resources use.