Dementia in Long Term Care Facilities: Telemedicine for the Management of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms (DETECT)

Toulouse University Hospital

Status

Completed

Conditions

Dementia

Treatments

Procedure: telemedicine

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02472015

13 7031 08

Details and patient eligibility

About

Telemedicine may facilitate adequate treatment of Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) by identifying underlying causes and tailoring a treatment plan (pharmacological or non-pharmacologic treatments including provision of staff education and support, training in problem solving, and targeted therapy directed at the underlying causes for specific behaviors).

Full description

During a 6-months period, patients will be included in both arms, whenever they present a disruptive NPS that requires a specialist consultation based on the long-term care facility (LTCF) staff judgment. In the intervention group, a telemedicine (TM) consultation between the LTCF staff (medical and nurse staff) and the Memory Center from the University Hospital, will occur at inclusion (T0). Then, a second TM consultation will occur at 1 month (T1). In the control group management of NPS will be done as usual care. In both groups, patients' parameters such as non-programmed hospitalizations and/or consultations due to disruptive NPS, psychotropic drugs use, and health costs, will be evaluated at inclusion, 1 month and at 2 months. Acceptability of the TM among the LTCF staff will be assessed during the study in the intervention group.

The two university hospitals are composed of a group of institutions for elderly people located near Toulouse and Limoges.

Enrollment

143 patients

Sex

All

Ages

65+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

patient aged 65 or more, with a dementia diagnosed by a specialist or the general practitioner;
patient presenting with a disruptive NPS as defined in French Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) recommendations (2009), that requires a specialist consultation based on the LTCF staff judgment;
informed and written consent by the patient or the legal representative or the reliable person when appropriate;
general practitioner agreement.

Exclusion criteria

patient's life expectancy less than 6 months;
Non agreement of study participation of patients or legal representative or the reliable person when appropriate.