Factors associated with psychiatric hospitalization of individuals diagnosed with dementia and comorbid bipolar disorder

Predicting Psychiatric Hospitalizations among Elderly Veterans with a History of Mental Health Disease

Introduction:

Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) care managers are tasked with identifying aging Veterans with psychiatric disease in attempt to prevent psychiatric crises. However, few resources exist that use real-time information on patient risk to prioritize coordinating appropriate care amongst a complex aging population.

Objective:

To develop and validate a model to predict psychiatric hospital admission, during a 90-day risk window, in Veterans ages 65 or older with a history of mental health disease.

Methods:

This study applied a cohort design to historical data available in the Veterans Affairs (VA) Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW). The Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regularization regression technique was used for model development and variable selection. Individual predicted probabilities were estimated using logistic regression. A split-sample approach was used in performing external validation of the fitted model. The concordance statistic (C-statistic) was calculated to assess model performance.

Results:

Prior to modeling, 61 potential candidate predictors were identified and 27 variables remained after applying the LASSO method. The final model’s predictive accuracy is represented by a C-statistic of 0.903. The model’s predictive accuracy during external validation is represented by a C-statistic of 0.935. Having a previous psychiatric hospitalization, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and the number of mental-health related social work encounters were strong predictors of a geriatric psychiatric hospitalization.

Conclusion:

This predictive model is capable of quantifying the risk of a geriatric psychiatric hospitalization with acceptable performance and allows for the development of interventions that could potentially reduce such risk.

Predictors of hospitalization length of stay among re-admitted treatment-resistant Bipolar Disorder inpatients

BACKGROUND

Hospitalization accounts for significant health care resource utilization for treatment-resistant Bipolar Disorder (BD), especially among frequent users of acute inpatient psychiatric units. Appraisal of the clinical features and predictive role of selected variables is therefore crucial in such population, representing the aim of the present research.

METHODS

A hundred and nineteen BD inpatients with an established history of pharmacological treatment resistance for either mania or bipolar depression were classified as long hospitalization cases (LOS⁺) and their controls and compared against each other for a number of demographic, clinical, and psychopathological features.

RESULTS

Overall, female sex, current second-generation atypical antipsychotic (SGA)/mood stabilizer other than lithium as well as antidepressant treatment at the admission occurred statistically more frequently among LOS⁺ cases, concordant with higher scores at the Hamilton scales for depression and anxiety. Lithium utilization at the time of hospitalization did not differ between cases and controls (LOS^-, n = 81/119), as predominant affective temperament and other psychopathological rating did not. Overall, the time of admission, use of SGA, anticonvulsant (other than lithium), antidepressant, lifetime alcohol dependence, and BD Type (-I or -II), but not current mood polarity at the time of hospitalization, correctly predicted LOS⁺ grouping 68.2% of the times: Exp(B) = 3.151, p042.

LIMITATIONS

Post-hoc, cross-sectional study, relatively small sample size, recall and selection bias on some diagnoses.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, LOS⁺ treatment-resistant BD inpatients characterize for higher severity and greater pharmaco-utilization use, which warrants replication studies to include additional predictors to shed further light on the matter.

Predicting hospital length of stay for geriatric patients with mood disorders

OBJECTIVE

To determine predictors of hospital length of stay (LOS) for adult and geriatric patients with mood disorders admitted to inpatient psychiatric beds.

METHOD

Admission and discharge data from a large urban mental health centre, from 2005 to 2010 inclusive, were retrospectively analyzed. Using the Resident Assessment Instrument-Mental Health, an assessment that is used to collect demographic and clinical information within 72 hours of hospital admission, 199 geriatric mood disorder admissions were compared with 570 adult mood disorder admissions. Predictors of hospital LOS were determined using a series of general linear models.

RESULTS

Living alone, number of recent psychiatric admissions, involuntary admission, and close or constant observation level predict longer hospital LOS in geriatric, but not in adult mood disorder, patients. Conversely, pain on admission predicts shorter hospital LOS in geriatric, but not among adult, mood disorder patients. Predictors of longer hospital LOS, irrespective of admission group (adult, compared with geriatric), include incapacity, negative symptoms, and increased dependence for instrumental activities of daily living.

CONCLUSIONS

Addressing these predictive factors early on during admission and in the community may result in shorter hospital LOS and more optimal use of resources.

Individual risk profiles for postoperative delirium after joint replacement surgery

BACKGROUND

Delirium occurs in nearly half of older patients after joint replacement surgery. However, risk profiles for developing delirium have not been established.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to identify risk profiles for delirium in patients following joint replacement surgery.

METHOD

Based on data from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of olanzapine (10 mg) as delirium prophylaxis in 400 patients (67-81 years old) undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery, we performed a signal detection analysis to develop risk profiles for postsurgical delirium (using baseline patient characteristics, iatrogenic factors, and physiologic response parameters).

RESULTS

Olanzapine reduced the incidence of delirium by 63% relative to placebo. Among patients receiving placebo, those with an ASA class = 3 and age ≥ 74 years had a 64% risk of delirium. Those with ASA class < 3 still had a 67% risk of delirium if postoperative oxygen saturation was < 95%. Patients who received olanzapine had an 83% risk of developing delirium if they received ≥ 42.5 mg equivalents of intra-operative morphine, were ≥ 74 years old, and had a mean arterial pressure (MAP) < 90 mm Hg at the presurgical screening visit. Patients with the lowest risk (6%) of developing delirium received olanzapine had a hematocrit ≥ 28%, and a presurgical MAP ≥ 90.

CONCLUSION

Although use of prophylactic olanzapine reduced the incidence of delirium, subsets of patients remained likely to develop delirium. The risk of developing delirium may be reduced through prophylactic dispensation of olanzapine, maintaining optimal perfusion and oxygenation, and limiting intra-operative opioids.