Premium
Wandering behavior in veterans with psychiatric diagnoses residing in nursing homes
Author(s) -
Molinari Victor,
KingKallimanis Bellinda,
Volicer Ladislav,
Brown Lisa,
Schonfeld Lawrence
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.1972
Subject(s) - psychiatry , delirium , dementia , depression (economics) , anxiety , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , medicine , medical diagnosis , delusion , population , ambulatory , psychology , disease , environmental health , pathology , economics , macroeconomics
Objective To investigate nursing home residents with psychiatric diagnoses who wander and who are not diagnosed with dementia. Method A national cross‐sectional study was conducted in a male Veterans Administration Nursing Home Care Unit population using a retrospective review of the MDS. Results Eleven thousand six hundred and nineteen residents were identified as having a psychiatric diagnosis without significant cognitive impairment; just under 1% ( n = 113) wandered. Using rare events logit regression, we determined that a diagnosis of schizophrenia/bipolar disorder or comorbid psychiatric conditions were associated with increased risk of wandering compared to residents diagnosed with anxiety/depression. Psychiatric wanderers were also more likely to, have symptoms of delirium, exhibit socially inappropriate behavior, manifest problems in decision‐making, take anti‐psychotic medications, and to be more independent in locomotion. Conclusions Psychiatric wanderers may be conceptualized better as exhibiting ambulatory concomitants of unremitted neurological/psychiatric symptoms or medication side effects of their treatment. Findings have implications for addressing treatable causes of wandering. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.