International psychogeriatrics
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Cognitive impairment has been repeatedly shown to be a delirium risk factor. Much indirect evidence suggests that right-hemisphere dysfunction plays a particularly important role. This retrospective, case-controlled study, from a 148-patient memory loss clinic database, compared neuropsychological measures of hemispheric function in cognitively impaired elderly veterans with and without a history of delirium. ⋯ Compared to the controls, subjects with a history of delirium had significantly lower scores on Object Assembly and Visual Reproduction (p < .05), tests that are predominantly right-hemisphere dependent. There were no significant differences in left-hemisphere measures. It is concluded that right-hemisphere dysfunction may prove to be an important risk factor for delirium.
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Mental status changes were assessed and compared in 172 general surgical and orthopedic patients and 190 nonsurgical patients, all aged 55 and over, during a 10-month period. Assessments included a structured psychosocial questionnaire and standardized tests of cognition, affect, and function. The relationship of surgery, type of surgery, age, gender, and postoperative delirium to long-term postoperative decline was evaluated. ⋯ Hierarchical multiple regression analyses assessed the unique contributions of demographic and surgical variables to cognitive, affective, and functional change. None of the independent variables tested made a significant contribution to changes from baseline to long-term follow-up. The findings may be due to the physical and psychological health of this sample, and replication of this work in more impaired populations may be productive.
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Two reliability studies were performed on a recently developed cognitive assessment battery for severe dementia. The method, the Modified Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development (M-OSPD), is based on the Piagetian developmental model of sensorimotor functions. Procedures have been adapted from this test battery, which was originally applied to infants and small children, for the assessment of remaining cognitive capacity in severe dementia. ⋯ The M-OSPD proved to be a reliable instrument in these studies. This cognitive assessment measure can provide meaningful information regarding the cognitive abilities of late-stage dementia patients. Until recently, these late-stage dementia patients had been considered untestable in studies that utilized conventional psychometric and mental status evaluation measures.