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Impact of standardizing care for agitation in dementia using an integrated care pathway on an inpatient geriatric psychiatry unit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2022

Sanjeev Kumar*
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Amruta Shanbhag
Affiliation:
Memorial Healthcare System, Psychiatry Residency Program, Hollywood, FL, USA
Amer M. Burhan
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, Whitby, Canada Toronto Dementia Research Alliance, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Sarah Colman
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Philip Gerretsen
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Ariel Graff-Guerrero
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Donna Kim
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Clement Ma
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Division of Biostatistics, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Benoit H. Mulsant
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Bruce G. Pollock
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Vincent L. Woo
Affiliation:
Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Edmonton, Canada Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Simon J.C. Davies
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Tarek K. Rajji
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Toronto Dementia Research Alliance, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Sanjeev Kumar, Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 80 Workman Way, Toronto, ON M6J1H4, Canada. Phone: 416-535-8501. Email: sanjeev.kumar@camh.ca.

Abstract

Objectives:

This study examined the effectiveness of an integrated care pathway (ICP), including a medication algorithm, to treat agitation associated with dementia.

Design:

Analyses of data (both prospective and retrospective) collected during routine clinical care.

Setting:

Geriatric Psychiatry Inpatient Unit.

Participants:

Patients with agitation associated with dementia (n = 28) who were treated as part of the implementation of the ICP and those who received treatment-as-usual (TAU) (n = 28) on the same inpatient unit before the implementation of the ICP. Two control groups of patients without dementia treated on the same unit contemporaneously to the TAU (n = 17) and ICP groups (n = 36) were included to account for any secular trends.

Intervention:

ICP.

Measurements:

Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI), Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPIQ), and assessment of motor symptoms were completed during the ICP implementation. Chart review was used to obtain length of inpatient stay and rates of psychotropic polypharmacy.

Results:

Patients in the ICP group experienced a reduction in their scores on the CMAI and NPIQ and no changes in motor symptoms. Compared to the TAU group, the ICP group had a higher chance of an earlier discharge from hospital, a lower rate of psychotropic polypharmacy, and a lower chance of having a fall during hospital stay. In contrast, these outcomes did not differ between the two control groups.

Conclusions:

These preliminary results suggest that an ICP can be used effectively to treat agitation associated with dementia in inpatients. A larger randomized study is needed to confirm these results.

Information

Type
Original Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© International Psychogeriatric Association 2022
Figure 0

Table 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients on admission and discharge

Figure 1

Figure 1. Clinical outcomes at entry and exit from the Integrated Care Pathway group. CMAI: Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory; NPIQ: Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire, # indicates statistically significant group differences at p < 0.05.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Kaplan-Meier survival curves for time from admission to discharge in days between (A) ICP vs. TAU; and (B) Control Group 1 vs. Control Group 2. Cox proportional-hazards regression estimates (hazard ratio [HR], 95% confidence intervals [CI], and p-values) are provided for each model, adjusting for age at admission, gender, and psychotropic medications at admission.

Figure 3

Table 2. Clinical measures in the integrated care pathway (ICP) group (n = 28) at entry and exit from the ICP

Figure 4

Table 3. Comparisons of outcome measures between integrated care pathway and treatment-as-usual groups, and between the two control groups

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