American Geriatrics Society position statement: Making medical treatment decisions for unrepresented older adults.

This paper is an official position statement of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and updates the 2017 AGS position statement, Making Medical Treatment Decisions for Unbefriended Older Adults. In this updated position statement, the term "unbefriended" is replaced by "unrepresented" as a term that is more value-neutral, more accurately describes the circumstance in which a person without medical decision-making capacity does not have recognized surrogate representation, and better aligns with increasingly preferred terminology as reflected in recent medical literature. We define unrepresented older adults as those who (1) lack decisional capacity to provide informed consent for a particular medical treatment, (2) have not executed an advance directive that addresses the medical treatment at hand and lack capacity to do so, and (3) lack representation from a surrogate decision-maker (i.

Collaborative transdisciplinary team approach for dementia care.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) has high economic impact and places significant burden on patients, caregivers, providers and healthcare delivery systems, fostering the need for an evaluation of alternative approaches to healthcare delivery for dementia. Collaborative care models are team-based, multicomponent interventions that provide a pragmatic strategy to deliver integrated healthcare to patients and families across a wide range of populations and clinical settings. Healthcare reform and national plans for AD goals to integrate quality care, health promotion and preventive services, and reduce the impact of disease on patients and families reinforcing the need for a system-level evaluation of how to best meet the needs of patients and families.

Lewy body dementia: the impact on patients and caregivers.

Lewy body dementia (LBD) is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia in older adults, yet there remains a delay in diagnosis that limits healthcare providers' ability to maximize therapeutic outcomes and enhance patient and caregiver quality of life. The impact of LBD on patients includes limiting the potential exposure to medications that may cause adverse outcomes, and addressing how the disease manifestations, such as autonomic features and behavior, affect quality of life. LBD impact on caregivers has been discussed to a greater degree in the literature, and there is clear evidence of caregiver burden and grief associated with disease manifestations.

Capgras syndrome in Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

Background: Capgras syndrome is characterized by the recurrent, transient belief that a person has been replaced by an identical imposter. We reviewed clinical characteristics of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) patients with Capgras syndrome compared to those without Capgras.

Methods: We identified 55 consecutive DLB patients (11 cases with Capgras syndrome (DLB-C) and 44 cases without evidence of Capgras (DLB).