Centre for Policy on Ageing



A study of aggression among referrals to a community-based psychiatry of old age service
Author(s)	Pat Gibbons, Miriam Gannon, Margo Wrigley
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 12, no 3,, March 1997
Pages	pp 384-388
Keywords	Aggression ; Referrals ; Psychogeriatric units ; Ireland.
Annotation	In this Irish study on aggression in referrals to a community-based psychiatry service, out of 42 subjects, 25 patients had a diagnosis of dementia. Aggressive behaviour was reported in 18 patients, this being verbal only in 9 cases, and both verbal and physical in nine cases. Sexual aggression and self-injurious behaviour were each reported in one case only. Aggression was found to be positively associated with diagnosis of dementia and high physical dependency, but was not associated with age, sex, physical illness or the use of psychotropic medication. At 2-year follow-up, aggressive patients were found to have a higher rate of admission to psychiatric in-patient or residential care, and tended to have a higher use of neuroleptic drugs. Aggression is a significant problem for community-based older people and their carers, which may increase the likelihood of admission into long-term care. A reliable instrument to measure aggression would be useful in clinical assessment.
Accession Number	CPA-970807229 A
Classmark	EPB: L5R: LDM: 763
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.