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No to mental impairment
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The elderly say no to mental disability
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A study published recently suggests that, over time, elderly people who suffer from terminal illnesses become more willing to accept a life-preserving treatment resulting in further physical disability or more pain. But they remain unwilling to accept a treatment that causes mental impairment.
Researchers led by Dr. Terri Fried, an associate professor of internal medicine at Yale, studied 226 older men and women with advanced cancer, congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
They conducted in-home interviews over two years to know if the participants would accept life-prolonging treatment if it resulted in one of four diminished health states: mild physical disability, severe physical disability, mental disability or moderately severe pain daily.
The paper appears in Archives of Internal Medicine.
The patients who had moderate or severe pain were more likely, over time, to rate severe pain as acceptable; and those who experienced a decline in their ability to perform the tasks of daily living were more likely to accept a treatment that would result in more disability.
But 75 per cent of patients rated severe mental decline as unacceptable.
(NYT)
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