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New paper on delirium in Parkinson's Disease
By combining two studies designed specifically to learn more about delirium, this exciting new work carried out in Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals showed that two thirds of people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) developed delirium compared to just over one third of older adults without PD. People with PD also experienced worse outcomes after their delirium, with higher rates of mortality and institutionalisation in the year following hospitalisation.
This work was led by PhD student Florence Gerakios and supervised jointly by AGE Research Group member Dr Sarah Richardson, and Brain And Movement (BAM) Group members Dr Rachael Lawson and Professor Alison Yarnall.
Previous work by Dr Richardson has shown that delirium, a sudden onset confusion, is common in older people in hospital and strongly associated with poor outcomes including dementia. However, no previous studies have followed people with PD during their hospital admissions to look for delirium or followed them up afterwards to see how they recover.
This work continues to build upon Dr Richardson’s growing portfolio of translational research on delirium, which provides the focus for her NIHR Clinical Lectureship within the AGE Research Group. Dr Richardson says:
“These results really emphasise the need for an increased awareness of delirium, particularly in people with long term conditions such as Parkinson’s, as well as further research into how best to diagnose and manage it. Our understanding of important risk factors for delirium is increasing but there is an urgent need to explore how your baseline, including having multiple long term conditions, affects the risk of delirium and how much of this risk is modifiable.”
Last modified: Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:52:19 BST
