Mental disorders in the nursing home: Another perspective

Tariot P.N.; Podgorski C.A.; Blazina L.; Leibovici A.

Psychiatry Unit, Monroe Community Hospital, 435 East Henrietta Rd., Rochester, NY 14620, USA

Objective: Many studies of the prevalence of mental disorders among residents of long-term care facilities have had substantial methodological shortcomings. This study was conducted to replicate a previous well-designed study and to examine additional characteristics of nursing home residents. Method: Randomly selected residents (N=80) in a public long-term care facility were evaluated by a psychiatric team using DSM-III-R criteria and quantitative assessments of behavior and cognitive status. Results: Of the 80 subjects, 91% had at least one psychiatric diagnosis and at least one behavioral problem; 50% had four or more behavioral problems. In addition, 29% had received psychiatric care before admission, and 61% received psychiatric care after admission. Conclusions: These findings replicate those of the few prior studies that used analogous research techniques, but those previous studies were conducted in private, intermediate-care institutions whose residents had different demographic characteristics. The mental health needs of these residents are substantial and should be addressed by the medical community and the nursing home industry.

Keywords: mental disease (link) diagnosis; mental disease (link) epidemiology; nursing home; adult; age; aged; article; behavior disorder (link) epidemiology; behavior disorder (link) diagnosis; cognitive defect (link) diagnosis; cognitive defect (link) epidemiology; daily life activity; education; female; human; major clinical study; male; marriage; mental health service; priority journal; race; religion

AM. J. PSYCHIATRY 150/7 (1063-1069) 1993