Depression in dementia more common in community care, study finds
2014-12-16
(Press-News.org) Researchers studied 414 people with severe dementia along with their carers in England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The study gathered information on quality of life, activities of daily living such as bathing, feeding and dressing and presence of depressive symptoms using standardised measures.
In the groups studied, 37% of the 217 people living in the community showed signs of depression compared to 23% of the 197 in care homes. It is one of the few studies comparing similar groups of people living at home and in nursing homes.
Professor David Challis, from the University's Personal Social Services Research Unit, led the study. He said: "Despite the differences between the countries involved, the pattern of depression observed in the community-dwelling group was consistent.
"In addition this difference may be partly explained by the responses received from carers. Often, relatives of people with dementia are more distressed by symptoms of depression than professional care workers, so this may have influenced their ratings on the depression measure.
"What we need is more support for carers to help them cope with their relatives' depressive symptoms and to recognise the problem before it gets to severe levels."
The study also looked at the rates of anti-depressant prescribing across the different countries. It found that England and Spain had the highest rates. In Germany there were more people suffering depressive symptoms, but they had the lowest rates of antidepressant use.
Overall Finland (15%) and the Netherlands (21%) had the lowest rates of depression in people with severe dementia, compared to 23% overall.
According to the research, this suggests other EU countries could learn from their example. "By studying a number of different countries you can gain insights into different ways of meeting needs," Professor Challis said.
"Certainly the system in Finland and the Netherlands seems to have much to offer to UK care providers and overall we found that more needs to be done to help family carers identify and cope with their relatives' symptoms of depression."
The study, 'Depressive Symptomatology in Severe Dementia in a European
Sample: Prevalence, Associated Factors and Prescription Rate of
Anti-Depressants' was published in the journal International Psychogeriatrics.
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2014-12-16
Some neurons are more active than others, even when they are positioned right next to each other and are one and the same neuron type. Dr. Jean-Sébastien Jouhanneau and Dr. James Poulet of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin Buch have discovered the cause for this phenomenon. They found that the more active neurons in the somatosensory area of the brain respond to a broader receptive field and probably play a particularly important role in our sensory perception. The findings of the researchers, who also work at the NeuroCure Cluster of ...
2014-12-16
People and animals have been shown to discriminate between quantities. Lions, chimpanzees and hyenas, for example, will only approach a group of attackers if their own group outnumbers that of the intruders. These animals use numerical information to make decisions about their social life.
Testing numerical competence
In 2012 Friederike Range and Zsofia Virányi from the Messerli Research Institute at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna showed that wolves are capable of discriminating between different food quantities. In their present study, they asked ...
2014-12-16
Stimulants use such as cocaine and amphetamine is associated with a nearly two-fold greater likelihood of suicidal behaviour amongst people who inject drugs, say researchers at the University of Montreal and the CHUM Research Centre. Drug addiction had already been identified as a major risk factor for suicide, and it is in fact the cause of ten percent of deaths among drug users. The data from this groundbreaking study could help develop and evaluate more appropriate suicide prevention efforts in this highly vulnerable population.
The researchers were able to explore ...
2014-12-16
GPs should consider a more overt discussion with patients when referring them for further investigation of symptoms which may indicate cancer, according to a paper published in the British Journal of General Practice.
In an NIHR-funded study, researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Durham and Exeter conducted interviews with patients being referred for possible lung and colorectal cancer.
They found that patients were rarely involved in the decision to be referred for investigation and that reasons for referral tended to be couched in non-specific ...
2014-12-16
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2014 -- It's been a holiday decoration staple for decades, and it turns out that silver stuff hanging from your tree has quite a storied past. Tinsel has been made out of everything from real silver, to lead to other dangerously flammable materials. This week's Speaking of Chemistry decks your halls with the history of tinsel. Check it out at http://youtu.be/fql3aCuu1l0.
INFORMATION:
Speaking of Chemistry is a production of Chemical & Engineering News, a weekly magazine of the American Chemical Society. The program features fascinating, weird and ...
2014-12-16
University of Guelph researchers hope their new discovery will help combat a disease killing honeybee populations around the world.
The researchers have found a toxin released by the pathogen that causes American foulbrood disease -- Paenibacillus larvae (P. larvae) -- and developed a lead-based inhibitor against it.
The study was published in the December issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The finding provides much-needed insight into how the infection occurs, said Rod Merrill, a professor in Guelph's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a ...
2014-12-16
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Newly published research provides the first demonstration of how a genetic mutation associated with a common form of albinism leads to the lack of melanin pigments that characterizes the condition.
About 1 in 40,000 people worldwide have type 2 oculocutaneous albinism, which has symptoms of unsually light hair and skin coloration, vision problems, and reduced protection from sunlight-related skin or eye cancers. Scientists have known for about 20 years that the condition is linked to mutations in the gene that produces the OCA2 protein, ...
2014-12-16
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It may not be necessary for experienced gastroenterologists to send polyps they remove from a patient's colon to a pathologist for examination, according to a large study conducted by physician researchers at the Jacksonville campus of Mayo Clinic.
Their 522-patient study, published in the December issue of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, found that physicians correctly evaluated whether a polyp was precancerous or benign using high-definition optical lenses during a colonoscopy. Their assessment was 96 or 97 percent accurate -- depending on which of ...
2014-12-16
There are consequences of the successful efforts worldwide to save beavers from extinction. Along with the strong increase in their population over the past 100 years, these furry aquatic rodents have built many more ponds, establishing vital aquatic habitat. In doing so, however, they have created conditions for climate changing methane gas to be generated in this shallow standing water, and the gas is subsequently released into the atmosphere. In fact, 200 times more of this greenhouse gas is released from beaver ponds today than was the case around the year 1900, estimates ...
2014-12-16
Use of cigarettes, alcohol, and abuse of prescription pain relievers among teens has declined since 2013 while marijuana use rates were stable, according to the 2014 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, released today by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). However, use of e-cigarettes, measured in the report for the first time, is high.
These 2014 results are part of an overall two-decade trend among the nation's youth. The MTF survey measures drug use and attitudes among eighth, 10th, and 12th graders, is funded by NIDA, and is conducted by researchers at the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Depression in dementia more common in community care, study finds
