Research Journal #3

Article #1

Article #2


Article #3 Research Journal #3 My research question is “How do physicians detect the early onset of dementia?” Nothing has really changed since the beginning of my research. At the beginning I did have to tweak a few of the words to find more peer reviewed articles. My five new sources are as follows: Article #1 • Boise, L., Camicioli, R., & Morgan, D. (1999). Diagnosing dementia – perspectives of primary care physicians. The Gerontologist, (39)4, 457-464. • The source used was Grounded Theory. This source is directly related to my research question. Some of the key terms used are physicians and diagnosing. This article speaks about how difficult it is to diagnose dementia. Physician’s time is limited with the amount of time they are able to spend with each patient in their actual office. There were 78 physicians, which made up 18 focus groups used to gather this particular information. They talked about how important it is to detect dementia in its early stages, which helps treat the disease. Early treatment will help the patient live a better life and early detection also helps the people who are taking care of them. This source will be used in supporting my research paper in the result section since it supports the fact that early diagnosis is imperative and that there are difficulties in actually diagnosing this chronic disease. What I found interesting is that less than 50% of dementia cases are diagnosed by physicians. Article #2 • Pim van den, D., Dungen, P., & Moll, C. (2016). Case finding of mild cognitive impairment and dementia and subsequent care; Results of a cluster RCT in primary care. PLOS One, (11)6. • The source used was RCT Theory This source is directly related to my research question because of some of the key terms use like physicians, diagnosis, and early onset. This article discusses how physician’s diagnosed and treat dementia. They also talk about the importance of detecting dementia early and the obstacles in doing so. There was a case finding that was defined as screening of a selected high-risk group instead of the entire group, implying that these individuals had a high probably of having the disease. This case study aimed to bring them to “treatment.” I found it interest that there are a lot of false positive diagnoses. I figured with all the cognitive tests available, it would be easier to diagnose. Article #3 • Harwood, R. (2012). Dementia for hospital physicians. Clinical Medicine, (12)1. • The source used was Cohort Theory This source is directly relevant to my research question due to the key terms like diagnosis, physicians, dementia, & early onset being used. This source explains how most people with dementia end up in the hospital at the end. There are a lot of challenges that doctors in hospital settings face when it comes to treating patients with dementia. Problems are often multiple and complex. In many cases, including early onset of dementia is complicated by delirium. Medical assessment must be meticulous and requires collateral history taking, mental state examination and cognitive function testing. Difficult behaviors usually represent unmet needs. Maybe the patient was given the diagnosis of having early onset dementia, but isn’t taking their medications. The article explains that skilled communication is vital for the patients and the family carers. I found it interesting that people with dementia are prone to side effects of prescribed drugs. I didn’t realize that antipsychotic drugs are rarely the answer to difficult behaviors. They may be used in cases of psychosis or severe distress. Article #4 • Chertkow, H., Massoud, F., & Nasreddine, Z. (2008). Diagnosis and treatment of dementia: 3. Mild cognitive impairment and cognitive impairment without dementia. CMAJ, (178)10. • The source used was RCT Theory This source is directly relevant to my research question due to the key terms used like physician, dementia, and diagnose. In this article they discuss in depth their findings on how to accurately diagnose dementia. They talk about how most elderly people will experience mild memory loss naturally, but it doesn’t mean they have dementia. They identified 2,483 articles, and only 314 were considered to be relevant and of good or fair quality. Their suggestion to family physicians is they should be aware that most types of dementia are preceded by a recognizable phase of mild cognitive decline. I think the above information will fit well into my results section of my paper. What I found interesting is there were 2,483 articles published and on 314 out of them were considered relevant. I would like to know what was considered irrelevant in those articles as a whole. Article #5 • Draper, B., Low, L., Withall, A. (2009). Translating dementia research into practice. International Psychogeriatrics, (21)1. • The source used was Case Control and RCT This source is directly relevant to my research question. The key terms used are physician, dementia, and early onset. This article will be used in my result section due to how it explains how important doctor patient relationships are in the overall scheme of being diagnosed with dementia and the treatment that is to follow. Good patient/doctor relationships play a vital role in the care of a chronic disease like dementia. Good quality care is more apt to happen if the relationship between patient and doctor are good. Primary care as the first point of contact with the medical system is a vital environment for the early detection of dementia. General practitioners (GPs) have difficulties with aspects of the diagnosis and management of dementia. The above information will work well in my result section of my paper. They article also explained how physicians have the basic dementia knowledge and were confident in differential diagnosis, but lacked confidence in their ability to communicate the diagnosis and manage behavioral symptoms. They also had poor knowledge of services. What I found interesting was that physicians in general shouldn’t be diagnosed by them, rather diagnosed by specialist services. I always thought being an MD is a specialty service. You go to school long enough.