Word: dementias
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...study, led by Associate Professor of Medicine Susan L. Mitchell, followed 323 patients with advanced dementia in 22 different nursing homes for 18 months...
Through interviews with the patients, their families, and the nursing homes’ caretakers, the researchers found that patients with end-stage dementia did not receive an ideal quality of care for their condition...
...Harvard Medical School study recommends that patients with advanced dementia be given the same quality care as patients with terminal illnesses such as cancer or heart failure...
...Infections and eating problems were hallmark for patients [with advanced dementia],” said Mitchell, who is also a senior scientist at Hebrew SeniorLife (HSL), a Harvard Medical School affiliate. “Far too many patients received stressing symptoms, and the care they receive at the end of life has not been optimal, in part because they have not been recognized as [having] a terminal illness...
Experts say part of the reason it is so common to intervene in dementia cases is that the patient, by definition, cannot make medical decisions autonomously, leaving a relative or friend to serve as their health-care proxy. "Family members are much less likely to forgo treatments or let go. An 80-year-old patient will tell you, 'I have lived a good, long life. I have no regrets.' But talk to his 50-year-old son, and he isn't ready. Being the decision maker for someone else is a much harder thing to do," says Sachs, who says...