Abstract
We studied the prevalence of movement disorders in a large nursing home population (397 patients, mean age 86 years) in New York City. Patients were first evaluated by specially trained research coordinators and final clinical diagnoses were confirmed by a movement disorder specialist. A movement disorder was identified in 21% of patients (83/397). The most frequent movement disorders were essential tremor (ET) (8.8%) and parkinsonism (7.1%). Only half of those admitted with a diagnosis of parkinsonism were confirmed in their diagnosis by the movement disorder specialists. Three percent of patients exhibited drug-induced tremor, 1.3% had dystonia, 0.5% had myoclonus and 0.3% had generalized dyskinesias. Overall, our findings underline the high frequency of movement disorders in a nursing home population. The discrepancy between our findings and the prevalence rates for parkinsonism reported on the initial transfer diagnosis emphasizes the difficulty of accurate diagnosis of movement disorders and in particular parkinsonism.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 359-366 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics |
Volume | 46 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2008 |
Keywords
- Frail elderly
- Geriatric population
- Long-term care population
- Movement disorders
- Parkinsonism
- Tremor