Rehabilitation therapists' recognition of cognitive and mood disorders in geriatric patients.

OBJECTIVE

To determine if physical and occupational therapists can recognize 2 known predictors of rehabilitation outcome, cognition and mood, in their geriatric patients.

DESIGN

Survey.

SETTING

Urban academic medical center rehabilitation unit.

PARTICIPANTS

One hundred two consecutive geriatric admissions rated by 20 physical and 8 occupational therapists for the presence of cognitive or affective disorders.

INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mini-Mental State Examination, Geriatric Depression Scale, and therapists' ratings.

RESULTS

Both disciplines had low rates of accurate detection of both cognitive abnormalities and symptoms of depression. Patients scoring in the intact range of either domain were more likely to be correctly identified by the therapists than were patients whose results were possibly or probably impaired.

CONCLUSION

Rehabilitation therapists had difficulty recognizing patients with cognitive and affective disorders. I recommend including a mental health professional on the treatment team, staff inservicing, and/or the use of standardized measures of mood and mental status to increase recognition of these syndromes in geriatric rehabilitation patients.