Dementia, Self-Harm Found to Be Linked in Older Adults

More than 60% of people with dementia who later harm themselves tend to do so within two years of their dementia diagnosis, suggests astudy reported inAlzheimer ’s& Dementia. The study also found that older adults who harm themselves, particularly men with no prior history of such behavior, may be at greater risk of a later dementia diagnosis than those who do not.“Our results highlight the need for better mental health and behavioral supports soon after dementia diagnoses or self-harm in older people,” wrote Adrian R. Walker, Ph.D., of UNSW Sydney and colleagues.Walker and colleagues relied on linked hospital data from New South Wales, Australia, to form two cohorts of people over the age of 40:The dementia cohort: People without a history of self-harm who had a diagnosis of dementia between July 1, 2001, and December 31, 2014.The self-harm cohort: People without a history of dementia who had a diagnosis of self-harm between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2014.The final datasets included 154,811 people in the dementia cohort, including 652 who had a later record of self-harm, and 28,972 people in the self-harm cohort, including 870 who had a later record of dementia. The researchers then analyzed the data to identify patient characteristics that might predict self-harm outcomes in the dementia cohort and dementia outcomes in the self-harm cohort.The analysis revealed that “men, people around the age of 70, and people who have a complex psychiatric profile livi...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alzheimer ' s & Dementia early support older adults self-harm Source Type: research