Dementia syndrome and intercurrent pathologies in the elderly. A study of 100 patients over 75 years of age in a geriatrics internal medicine unit

Elderly people with dementia are admitted in ever increasing number to Internal Medicine units for exploration of dementia and treatment of intercurrent diseases. The purpose of this prospective study of 100 demential subjects aged 75 or more (mean: 85.3 +/- 5.4 years) was to discover the cause of d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLa revue de medecine interne Vol. 14; no. 3; p. 182
Main Authors Saint-Jean, O, Kaltenbach, G, Bérigaud, S, Pernal, S, Bellot, J C, Bouchon, J P
Format Journal Article
LanguageFrench
Published France 01.03.1993
Subjects
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Dementia - complications
Female
France
Geriatrics
Hospital Departments
Hospitalization
Humans
Internal Medicine
Male
Prospective Studies
France
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Summary:Elderly people with dementia are admitted in ever increasing number to Internal Medicine units for exploration of dementia and treatment of intercurrent diseases. The purpose of this prospective study of 100 demential subjects aged 75 or more (mean: 85.3 +/- 5.4 years) was to discover the cause of dementia, to investigate the associated diseases and to evaluate the effects of treatment of these pathologies on the patients' cognitive performance. The mean duration of stay in hospital was 25.5 +/- 14.5 days (extreme: 6-100 days); 69 returned home, 17 were institutionalized and 14 died. Dementia was degenerative and of the Alzheimer type (73%) with vascular lesions (24%) associated with brain tumours (2%) or normal-pressure hydrocephalus (1%). On average, 2 pathologies were associated with Alzheimer's dementia and 3.5 with dementia cum vascular brain lesions. Repeated evaluation of cognitive performance was carried out using Folster's Mini Mental Status (MMS), a global evaluation test. It showed that 18% of the patients were significantly improved while the other diseases were being treated. The hypothesis of regressive confusional elements superimposed on dementia is accepted by the authors as it fits the model of geriatric multipathology morbidity. Since there is no specific treatment for most types of dementia, particular attention must be paid to associated diseases likely to aggravate the clinical expression of dementia.
ISSN:0248-8663