Melatonin decreases delirium in elderly patients: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Disturbance in the metabolism of tryptophan and tryptophan-derived compounds (e.g., melatonin) may have a role in the pathogenesis of delirium. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of low dose exogenous melatonin in decreasing delirium. DESIGN: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. SETTING: An Internal Medicine service in a tertiary care centre in London, Ontario, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: 145 individuals aged 65 years or over admitted through the emergency department to a medical unit in a tertiary care hospital. INTERVENTION: Patients were randomized to receive either 0.5 mg of melatonin or placebo every night for 14 days or until discharge. MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was the occurrence of delirium as determined by Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) criteria. RESULTS: Of a total of 145 individuals (mean age (standard deviation): 84.5 (6.1) years) 72 were randomly assigned to the melatonin group and 73 to the placebo group. Melatonin was associated with a lower risk of delirium (12.0% vs. 31.0%, p = 0.014), with an odds ratio (OR), adjusted for dementia and co-morbidities of 0.19 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.06-0.62). Results were not different when patients with prevalent delirium were excluded. LIMITATION: An intention to treat analysis was not possible due to loss to follow-up. CONCLUSION: Exogenous low dose melatonin administered nightly to elderly patients admitted to acute care may represent a potential protective agent against delirium.

Pain assessment in a geriatric psychiatry program.

BACKGROUND: The assessment of pain in older persons with psychiatric illness is particularly challenging for health care professionals. There are few well-tested pain assessment tools for this population. OBJECTIVES: A study was conducted to explore pain assessment and management issues in geriatric psychiatry. METHODS: Seventy-four staff members of a geriatric psychiatry service at Regional Mental Health Care London, St Joseph's Health Care London, London, Ontario completed a survey to assess current pain assessment and management practice for geriatric psychiatry patients, and to identify indicators used to assess pain in this population. The results of the survey were later shared with members of the program's pain management team in a focus group discussion to explore opportunities on how to transfer these findings into clinical practice. RESULTS: The majority of survey respondents (91.8%) agreed that pain assessment and management could be improved for patients; only 14.9% reported that there was a consistent approach to pain management. Misconceptions and attitudes about pain, lack of easily administered pain tools, inconsistent monitoring of pain, and lack of documentation of pain symptoms and indicators were identified as significant barriers to optimal pain management for their patients. A number of behaviours indicative of pain were identified but emphasis was placed on recognition of changes from usual behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study highlight the need for a comprehensive, practical and consistent approach to pain assessment and management, and provide insight into the critical components, including behavioural indicators, that could be incorporated into a pain protocol to be used with this population.

Examining the nurse practitioner role in long-term care: evaluation of a pilot project in Canada.

This study examined the nurse practitioner (NP) role in three long-term care facilities in Ontario, Canada, to identify factors that facilitate or impede the implementation of this role. Facility staff were surveyed about their perceptions of the NP role, and the NP assigned to the facilities was interviewed. Findings indicated the NP had a positive impact on practice activities and staff assessment skills. Ratings of effectiveness and satisfaction with the role were high, although they varied by facility and the frequency of staff interaction with the NP. This study indicated NPs can significantly impact the primary care of residents in long-term care facilities. The NP role can be facilitated by clear delineation of the scope of practice, optimal NP to resident ratios, and organizational support.

. . . But does it stick? Evaluating the durability of improved knowledge following an undergraduate experiential geriatrics learning session.

Canada's aging population, fewer medical students training in geriatric medicine, and inadequate geriatric curricula require that medical schools immediately address how future physicians will be able to care for older people effectively. The medical literature suggests that experiential learning strategies improve undergraduate medical students' knowledge of and interest in less-popular subjects, but the durability of improvements resulting from these resource-intensive learning approaches remains unclear. In October 2001, a convenience sample of all University of Western Ontario medical students attending the geriatric component of their first year was randomized to attend one 3-hour didactic lecture or 3-hour experiential learning session. Approximately 1 year later, students completed a follow-up knowledge and attitudes survey that was matched to their first-year surveys using date-of-birth data. Of 100 completed follow-up surveys, 42 were used in formal analysis. Although initially the experiential group demonstrated a better knowledge score, at 1-year follow-up, there was no significant difference in knowledge, attitudes toward older people, or interest in geriatric medicine between the didactic (n=17) and experiential (n=25) groups. Nevertheless, these students (n=42) demonstrated better attitude scores than those (n=22) who had not attended either educational intervention. This study challenges the belief that an experiential approach is a superior training method to a didactic approach. One year after an educational intervention, there was no difference in geriatric knowledge, attitude scores, or interest in geriatric medicine between students who underwent a didactic lecture or a participatory, experiential learning session.

Factors associated with the effectiveness of continuing education in long-term care.

PURPOSE: This article examines factors within the long-term-care work environment that impact the effectiveness of continuing education. DESIGN AND METHODS: In Study 1, focus group interviews were conducted with staff and management from urban and rural long-term-care facilities in southwestern Ontario to identify their perceptions of the workplace factors that affect transfer of learning into practice. Thirty-five people were interviewed across six focus groups. In Study 2, a Delphi technique was used to refine our list of factors. Consensus was achieved in two survey rounds involving 30 and 27 participants, respectively. RESULTS: Management support was identified as the most important factor impacting the effectiveness of continuing education. Other factors included resources (staff, funding, space) and the need for ongoing expert support. IMPLICATIONS: Organizational support is necessary for continuing education programs to be effective and ongoing expert support is needed to enable and reinforce learning.

Instruments for the assessment of pain in older persons with cognitive impairment.

Pain in older persons with cognitive impairment is often unrecognized and inadequately treated. A major problem associated with this undertreatment is the challenging nature of pain assessment and in particular the selection of accurate and useful assessment instruments. The purpose of this study was to review pain measurement instruments for acute and chronic pain suggested for use with cognitively impaired older persons and to summarize available evidence on their reliability and validity. A systematic search for pain instruments was conducted using several bibliographic databases, supplemented by a manual search of the bibliographies of retrieved articles and review chapters and by articles received from experts and clinicians in the field. Instruments were retained for review when the pain instrument was used or recommended for use with older persons with cognitive impairment. Thirty-nine instruments were reviewed; nine were excluded for various reasons. Of the remaining 30, 18 were self-report and 12 were staff administered. There were no instruments for which all major tests of reliability or validity were reported. Reliability and validity data were basic or unavailable for many instruments. One instrument had excellent validity but no reliability data. The remaining instruments had weak or adequate reliability and validity. The authors conclude that there is a need for further rigorous development and testing of pain instruments for use with cognitively impaired older persons. An adequate instrument would be one component of an effective program for assessment and management of pain in this population.