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(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Should patients without any dementia symptoms be screened for the condition just because they’ve reached a certain age?

In a new commentary, researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine, the University of Kent and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom say ‘no’ because it could lead to negative consequences for the patient and for society. They explain, doctors should instead focus on warning signs of dementia.
 
“There currently is no accurate screening test and we would be faced with an unacceptable number of false positives and false negatives,” Malaz Boustani, M.D., MPH, Indiana University School of Medicine, was quoted as saying. “If we focus on dementia red flags we will be identifying individuals who will have a very high probability of having dementia and be able to focus our resources, including diagnostic testing, on these people.”

Examples of dementia red flags include medication adherence problems, more than seven prescribed medications, and multiple falls.

The average primary care physician sees 2,000 patients every year – 300 of them are aged 65 or older and 24 of them will develop dementia. But research shows the benefits of doing routine screenings do not outweigh the harm such as possible stigma, loss of long term care insurance, and emotional dislocation for both the patient and family.

In a 2003 report, Boustani found while two-thirds of dementia cases are undetected by primary care physicians, there is not enough data to show whether it is a good idea to screen patients for dementia if they who do not have symptoms of memory loss or confusion.

This new commentary concludes, “The goal should continue to be the best possible care for the most patients, which currently does not include screening for dementia.”

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: JAMA, 2007;298:2409-2411

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Diabetes, Health Insurance / Medical Insurance, Medical News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.