What is it about?
Some researchers find that older adults with a history of serious mental illness (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or major depressive disorder) are more likely to also develop dementia in later life. We wanted to see if this could be proven using a national representative sample by looking at their Medicare records.
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Why is it important?
If older adults with a history of serious mental illness are at greater risk of developing dementia, we should have policies and systems in place that allow them to age safely at home and in the community, rather than warehousing them in skilled nursing facilities.
Perspectives
My mother lived with bipolar disorder and developed vascular dementia in her early 70s. She could no longer manage her psych meds because of the dementia, she was on Medicaid because of the poverty that comes with a lifetime of serious mental illness, and she was perceived as potentially "disruptive" because of her mental illness, so we were unable to find her any appropriate assisted living facilities. Therefore, she spent the last 12 years of her life in nursing homes, which to her felt like being involuntarily committed to a psych ward all over again.
Associate Research Professor Maria T Brown
Syracuse University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Estimating the Prevalence of Serious Mental Illness and Dementia Diagnoses Among Medicare Beneficiaries in the Health and Retirement Study, Research on Aging, August 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0164027517728554.
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