Detection of psychiatric disorders in elderly medical inpatients.
In a psychiatric census of a 196-bed acute inpatient Medicine for the Elderly unit, 76.1% of patients resident during 1 week were screened and interviewed in a two-stage diagnostic procedure. Of 153 patients studied, 11.1% were delirious, 26.8% were demented, and 9.2% were depressed. Overall, 56.9% of the cases were identified by ward nurses, and 55.5% by the ward doctors; taken together, ward staff identified 75.0% of the cases (kappa = 0.46), indicating that detection of psychiatric disorder in this population might be improved if doctors and nurses pooled their observations on this aspect of patient assessment.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester.
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C
Bowler
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A
Boyle
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M
Branford
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SA
Cooper
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R
Harper
J
J
Lindesay
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003693:Delirium / Q000175:diagnosis; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics; D006757:Hospital Units; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D009730:Nursing Assessment