Research Journal #2

Research Journal #2 What is your topic? Or what are your key words thus far? My topic is about dementia. My key words are: Physicians Diagnosing Onset What is your research question? Have you decided to change it at all? And if you have, how do I know that the way in which this question is formulated is appropriate to conduct a literature review with a systematic approach? My research question was “What are the early signs of dementia”. I have changed the question to “How do doctors make decisions about diagnosing early onset of dementia?” I have found ample peer review journals using that particular questions. My key terms appear in the titles and in the actual literature. There is a definite link between the terms and the title of the articles. My key terms are: Physician: A person qualified to practice medicine. Diagnose: Identify the nature of (an illness or other problem) by examination of the symptoms. Onset: The beginning of something, especially something unpleasant. Dementia: A chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning. What is the hierarchy of evidence? And how do I know you’re going about finding the most appropriate evidence/method for your research question? Systematic reviews of RCT’s RCT’s Cohort studies, case-controlled studies Qualitative studies Expert opinion Anecdotal opinion When searching for peer reviewed articles/journals I enter my research question, followed by the word cohort or Systematic reviews of RCT’s. I look for the key words in my question in the literature I am reviewing. Some articles have been no help and others have been great. Some of the literature is above my head and hard to understand. If we were all doctors reviewing this then we would understand things better. How do I know that the remit of the method itself is selecting the research, rather than just you on a whim? + 1 thing you found interesting + how you imagine using the source. Article #1 (Research) Van Vliet, D., de Vugt, M., & Bakker, C. (2011). Caregivers' perspectives on the pre-diagnostic period in early onset dementia: a long and winding road. International Psychogeriatrics, 23(9). This article is directly related to my topic. The article uses the same terms that I had in my research question. The article talks about how diagnosing dementia is tough and complex and there were semi-structured interviews. A conceptual model was formed based on 21 interviews. I found it interesting that the detection and diagnosis of dementia that begins before the age of 65 years is often a challenge for clinicians and takes longer than in the elderly. This source breaks things down to where an average person can understand it. Article #2 (Research) Singer, C., & Luxenberg, J. (2003). Diagnosing dementia in long-term care facilities. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 4(6). This article is directly related to my topic. This article discusses early diagnosis & intervention for people with dementia. This article talks about qualitative evidence that resolves conflicts to accommodate a diagnosis of dementia. I found it interesting that there is a lack of specialist support after being diagnosed. I will use this source because it gives the right information that is related to my topic. Article #3 (Research) Feldman, H., Jacova, C., & Rouillard, A.(2008). Diagnosis and treatment of dementia: 2. diagnosis. CMAJ, (178)7. This article directly relates to my research question I asked. It contains some of the key terms like systematic, diagnosis, and cohort. The article discusses the methods used to get a diagnosis. They reviewed studies that were published over a 9 year period and they also conducted some of their own studies. I found it interesting that dementia has 3 major conceptual components, which are, the clinical diagnosis, a logical search for the cause, and the identification of treatable comorbid conditions, and other contributing factors such as, a degree of cerebrovascular disease. I will use this source because it gives useful information regarding the process of determining whether or not someone has dementia. Article #4 (Research) Iliffe, S., Wilcock, J., & Haworth, D. (2006). Obstacles to shared care for patients with dementia: a qualitative study. Family practice, (23)3. This article directly relates to my research question, due to the terms used in the article such as, dementia, early onset, and diagnosis. This article discusses the importance of determining whether or not a person is just suffering from depression. Depression and the early signs of dementia have some of the same symptoms. I found it interesting that early recognition of dementia is moving up the global policy agenda. I will use this article because it gives useful information regarding the treatment of dementia. Article #5 (Research) Bourgeois, S., & Hickey, E. (2011). Dementia: from diagnosis to management-a functional approach. New York, NY: Psychology Press. This article directly relates to my research question. Some of the key terms in the article are early onset, dementia, & diagnosis. This book explains the different diagnostic criteria for dementia, which are memory impairment, cognitive, & behavioral symptoms. They explain that cognitive & behavioral symptoms are chronic and progressive. I found it interesting how they broke down the diagnostic criteria for dementia and that a lone is why this is going to be a good source for my research paper. Did anything else interesting happen? I found it interesting that all the journal articles reported basically the same information. I expected some people’s opinions to be incorporated into some of the answers, but it seems that everything reported is evidence based.