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.
Bowler
C
C
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester.
Boyle
A
A
Branford
M
M
Cooper
S A
SA
Harper
R
R
Lindesay
J
J
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