A description of clinical profile of over 65-years-old patients in acute psychiatric hospitalization unit at Hospital Universitario Central De Asturias (Oviedo, Spain)

Abstract

Introduction

Older patients with psychiatric conditions often have other disorders that include different levels of cognitive impairment, modifying the presentation of psychiatric symptoms and requiring treatment adaptations [1].

Objective

To describe clinical profile of hospitalized patients > 65 years, and its relationship with the presence of cognitive impairment and the length of hospital stay.

Methods

Descriptive and comparative study. Sample: 71 inpatients > 65 years (mean ± SD Age: 72.42 ± 5.96), admitted to “Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias”(Spain) from August 2014 to June 2015. Age, length of hospitalization, diagnosis, cognitive impairment and treatment data were collected (Table 1).

Results

Days of hospital stay (mean ± SD) = 15.89 ± 11.53. No variable showed significant relation except number of antipsychotics taken (r = 0.307, P = 0.009). Cognitive impairment was significantly more frequent in men than women (45.5/15.8%; χ² = 7.46; P = 0.006). No other variable showed significant differences.

Conclusions

A high percentage of psychiatric inpatients > 65 years present a cognitive impairment (29.6%) which was more frequent in males (45.5%). The length of hospital stay seems to be similar than in the rest of patients and not being affected by any of studied variables. More studies should be carried on to compare those results with similar variables in younger population and to analyze if there are differences between subgroups (65–75 vs > 75) [1].

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Table 1 Sociodemographic/clinical features.

LAI: long-acting injections.