Often a move to a nursing home represents the loss of independence to elderly people.
Today’s nursing homes have improved from years past. Now with beautiful gardens, allowing pets to visit or sometimes stay, and larger rooms. Still, for many elderly people, the move to a nursing home represents the end of the road and a loss of independence. It’s a place you go to die.
For many seniors, these thoughts can lead to depression, ranging from mild to chronic, which affects approximately 40% of nursing home residents, according to the American Geriatrics Society. Despite its prevalence, few elders in nursing homes will openly admit that they are depressed. That means in many cases, the family must look for the warning signs, which can be subtle: Dad isn’t quite as chatty and social as he once was. Mom just picks at her meals.
Often, depression goes undiagnosed and untreated, or treated as a “normal” part of aging. Because the signs of depression can mirror the signs of dementia, especially problems with focusing and concentrating, diagnosing depression in an older adult can be difficult. While medication or therapy or both could be prescribed for any patient with depression, knowing the cause can lead to more effective treatment.
Kenneth M. Sakauye, a geriatric psychiatrist at UT Medical Group in Memphis, Tenn., says getting to the root cause of depression is key. “Depression can have a biological cause or a psychological cause.”
According to agingcare.com, 50% of people develop depression. Dr. Sakauye explained that brain changes caused by Alzheimer’s, such as decreased blood flow, can result in a sort of vascular depression. If the cause is a biological factor like this, medication may be more effective than therapy because it treats the chemical imbalance.
On the other hand, if depression is mild and caused by psychological factors, such as lack of socialization and stimulation, therapy could be more helpful. “Elderly patients often say the best times of their lives are over,” Dr. Sakauye explains. “They were forced to move from home. They feel as if they don’t have anything left to live for.”
These people can benefit from talking to a professional therapist as well as lifestyle changes such as socialization, stimulation, exercise and bright lights.
There are many ways to treat depression the key is recognizing the symptoms and knowing how to treat it. Medication can play a key role in managing depression. But how do you know what medications will work best?
“There is a simple test available that cost the facility nothing and the resident nothing when they are covered by Medicare B. This simple buccal swab of the cheek will let the healthcare providers know if the depression medications they are taking has the ability to work, or if it isn’t being metabolized by that individual. Or, it might be that the other medications they are on aren’t working therefore adding to the depression,” said Clay Bullard, President of PGx Medical.
Making sure your elderly parent, friend or patient is on the right medication is key to helping them live longer…better!
For more information on medication management via Metabolic Validation, contact:
PGx Medical
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
www.pgxmed.com
source: agingcare.com