"Hospital Delirium" Increasingly Striking Elderly
The New York Times reports on the frightening increase in a syndrome known as "hospital delirium." According to the American Geriatric Society, this condition, which can cause frightening and disorienting hallucinations, affects one third of hospital patients over 70. Though the causes are not fully understood, the Times says that many cases may be caused by doctors and nurses who do not know how to properly treat the elderly. Additionally, the syndrome is often misdiagnosed, leading to more complications later.
According to the Times, there appear to be many possible triggers of hospital delirium: "infections, surgery, pneumonia, and procedures like catheter insertions, all of which can spur anxiety in frail, vulnerable patients. Some medications, difficult for older people to metabolize, seem associated with delirium."
Though doctors once dismissed it as a harmless and temporary condition, thinking it natural for elderly patients to become disoriented and agitated in the hospital, new research has found permanent and dangerous effects. Patients who suffer from delirium are at a higher risk for developing dementia later, and 35 to 40 percent die within a year.
According to Dr. Sharon Inouye, a geriatrician and expert in hospital delirium quoted by the Times, delirium may be triggered by doctors and nurses who are not used to administering medication to elderly patients: "'doctors don’t know how to appropriately use meds in older people, in terms of dosing' and compatibility with other medications."
The conclusions from this article seem to point to the fact that delirium is often aggravated or left untreated because doctors and nurses are not properly trained on how to treat elderly patients. If this is the case, hospitals, doctors, and nurses should be held accountable and taught to be sensitive to the needs of all of their patients. While the Times documents a few hospitals which are trying to be sensitive to the topic of delirium, this is obviously an issue that needs more attention.
For more information on the treatment of the elderly in hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities, visit the Nursing Home Advocates website.
