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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Should old age psychiatry develop memory clinics?
— a comparison with domiciliary work | | Author(s) | S Simpson, D Beavis, J Dyer |
| Journal title | Psychiatric Bulletin, vol 28, no 3, March 2004 |
| Pages | pp 78-82 |
| Source | http://pb.rcpsych.org |
| Keywords | Psychiatric treatment ; Geriatric out-patients clinics ; Home visits [doctors] ; Comparison. |
| Annotation | Memory clinics have become very popular in old age psychiatry, and there is some pressure for them to be developed in old age services. However, there is little evidence to suggest that they are more advantageous over traditional home visits or who should be seen in clinic. This was a naturalistic comparison of 78 consecutive new referrals to a memory clinic with 74 consecutive new domiciliary requests within the same service over the same period of time. A retrospective case note review collected the clinical features, and an 18-month prospective follow-up examined subsequent clinical management. The two groups were characterised more by their similarities than their differences. However, the domiciliary group had greater behavioural and psychological complications. The memory clinic patients were less likely to receive psychiatric medication and were more likely to be followed up. The authors conclude that memory clinics might be less suitable for patients with prominent psychiatric complications. Memory clinics could complement the domiciliary mode, by providing early psychosocial or neuropsychiatric approaches, although this is likely to lead to an increased clinical case load. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040507201 A |
| Classmark | LP: L6G: L5H: 48 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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