Cognitive functioning and instrumental activities of daily living in late-life bipolar disorder.

Objective: The authors report on the relationship between cognitive functioning and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) in elderly, clinically euthymic adults with bipolar disorder.

Methods: Twenty patients with bipolar disorder (age range: 61-86 years) were administered comprehensive neuropsychologic testing. Structured in-home performance-based assessments of IADLs were performed in 19 of these patients.

Treating complicated grief and substance use disorders: a pilot study.

Empirically supported treatments for co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs) and grief problems are lacking, despite the salience of grief pathology in substance abusers. Identification of a syndrome of complicated grief, distinct from bereavement-related depression and anxiety, led to the development of a targeted treatment, but this treatment has not been tried with persons with SUDs. We recruited 16 adults with complicated grief and substance dependence or abuse into an open pilot study of a manualized 24-session treatment, incorporating motivational interviewing and emotion coping and communication skills into our efficacious complicated grief treatment.

Does education moderate neuropsychological impairment in late-life depression?

Objective: The increased resistance of better-educated individuals to the cognitive effects of neuropathology has been conceptualized as reflecting brain reserve. This study examined whether educational level influences the degree of neuropsychological impairment associated with late-life depression.

Methods: The neuropsychological performances of 115 older depressed patients and of 44 comparison subjects of similar age and education were compared as a function of educational level.

Effect of rehabilitation site on functional recovery after hip fracture.

Objective: To evaluate whether FIM instrument motor outcomes differ between hip fracture survivors undergoing rehabilitation in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).

Design: Inception cohort with follow-up to 12 weeks after hospital discharge.

Setting: University-affiliated tertiary care hospital, IRFs, and SNFs.

Adverse effects of depression and cognitive impairment on rehabilitation participation and recovery from hip fracture.

Objectives: This study examines the effects of depression and cognitive impairment in elderly hip fracture patients receiving inpatient rehabilitation. Our goal was to determine whether any association of depression and cognitive impairment with rehabilitation outcome is accounted for by more immediate effects of these variables on rehabilitation participation.

Methods: We measured depression using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Ham-D), cognition using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and rehabilitation outcomes using the motor scale of the Functional Independence Measure (motor FIM) in a prospective observational study of 57 elderly rehabilitation hospital patients admitted to a university-affiliated, freestanding rehabilitation hospital with primary diagnosis of hip fracture.

Cognitive functioning in late-life bipolar disorder.

Objective: This study characterized cognitive functioning in elderly patients with bipolar disorder.

Method: The cognitive functioning of 18 euthymic patients with a history of bipolar disorder I or II, ages 60 years and older, was tested with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, and the Executive Interview. Cognitive functioning in these subjects was compared with that of an age- and education-matched group of 45 comparison subjects without mood disorders.

alpha1-acid glycoprotein in late-life depression: relationship to medical burden and genetics.

Serum alphal-acid glycoprotein (AAG) concentrations were examined in relationship to age, medical burden, depression, and mental status in elderly control (n = 19, mean age = 72.1 +/- 6.8 years) and depressed (n = 58, mean age = 71.