Ethical problems in feeding patients with advanced dementia.
Aged patients with dementia if not stricken by an acute disease sooner or later approach a terminal phase that is distinguished by a failure of spoon feeding. This condition induces great anxiety in the workers who care for these patients. The interaction between patient and care-worker during spoon-feeding failure is described by the psychological model of double-binding. Two serious consequences of double-binding are the distancing of the care-workers from the patient and scapegoating among the care-workers. It is essential that the pressure of double-bindings in the wards should be reduced.
D000368:Aged; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing*; D004309:Double Bind Interaction; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012539:Scapegoating