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June 19th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda TUESDAY, June 19 (HealthDay News) — For people with Alzheimer’s
disease, a stay in the hospital could lead to accelerated mental decline
and increase the risk of going into a nursing home or dying, according to
a new study.
The investigators also found that those who experienced delirium, which
is a state of heightened confusion or unusual mood or behavior, while in
the hospital were even less likely to go back to the way things were after
hospital discharge.
For the study, researchers followed nearly 800 people with mild
Alzheimer’s disease, about half of whom went to the hospital over the
course of the study period due to falls, infections or other problems.
Being hospitalized was associated with nearly twice the likelihood of
having a poor outcome, including mental decline and death, and being
delirious while hospitalized increased the risk by about 12 percent.
The study was published in the June 19 online issue of Annals of
Internal Medicine.
Previous research found that hospitalization and delirium can speed
mental slipping in older adults and patients with Alzheimer’s, but the
current study is the first to dissect the risks associated with having
delirium on top of being hospitalized on outcomes including
institutionalization and death, according to background information in the
study.
“Delirium can be quite a problem for patients even with mild
Alzheimer’s disease, and preventing it may be a more effective treatment
strategy than the current medications,” said Dr. Tamara Fong, an assistant
professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the
study.
A number of steps can help prevent delirium in hospitalized patients,
such as visiting with a family member or a familiar person, having
eyeglasses or hearing aids available, getting out of bed for walks and not
taking medications such as painkillers that can worsen confusion.
“There are some people who advocate keeping older people out of the
hospital and treating them at home. This is an interesting [idea] because
it does reduce the chance of delirium and reduces health care costs in
other ways,” Fong said.
People with Alzheimer’s disease are three times as likely to spend time
in the hospital. Between 20 percent and 40 percent of Alzheimer’s patients
are hospitalized each year for an average of about four days, the study
authors noted.
The current study included 771 patients with mild Alzheimer‘s enrolled
at Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center where they were
regularly evaluated for neurological function. Most of the patients were
either living on their own or with family.
Among this group, 367 patients were hospitalized within 18 months of a
research center visit and 194 of these patients had delirium during
hospitalization. Delirium was the reason for hospitalization in only 4
percent of cases; the most common causes were fainting, falls, heart
problems and abdominal pain.
The study authors found that 41 percent of the patients who were
hospitalized with delirium had accelerated mental decline during the year
following hospitalization, which they measured using a memory and
concentration test. In comparison, only 23 percent of hospitalized
patients without delirium and 26 percent of patients who were not
hospitalized experienced increased mental decline during this time.
Whereas hospitalization on its own did not appear to drive up the risk
of mental decline, delirium among patients who were hospitalized increased
the risk by 20 percent.
Most Alzheimer’s patients eventually have to be institutionalized, and
many of them need help within five to 10 years of diagnosis, Fong said.
Patients live between eight and 10 years on average after being diagnosed,
and as Fong pointed out, usually die because of complications such as
pneumonia.
In this study, the risk of going into a nursing home and dying in the
year following hospitalization was higher for both groups of hospitalized
patients. Those who developed delirium were 9.3 times more likely than
nonhospitalized patients to be institutionalized and 5.4 times more likely
to die, while those who were hospitalized and did not have delirium were
6.9 and 4.7 times more likely, respectively.
The researchers took into account the fact that hospitalized patients
were generally older and sicker than patients who did not have to go to
the hospital during the study.
However, the fact that the study involved only one research center and
that the participants were predominantly white makes it harder to say the
outcomes associated with hospitalization and delirium could apply to the
overall population, Fong said.
“This study does a great job of saying, ‘Look how serious this problem
really is,'” said Dr. James Galvin, a professor of neurology and
psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center, in New York City.
“Hospitalization is often the tipping point,” he added. “The medical
condition which may lead to hospitalizing may be a tipping point but
clearly the hospital can be, too.”
There is now a lot of focus on improving health in the home setting to
avoid hospitalization and delirium, Galvin said. This includes getting the
flu shot, maintaining good bladder and bowel hygiene to prevent urinary
tract infections, and managing chronic pain medications that could lead to
delirium.
More information
To learn more about Alzheimer’s disease and delirium, visit the Alzheimer’s Association.
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