OBJECTIVES: To investigate the efficacy of the chronic usage of the cholinesterase inhibitor rivastigmine in patients with dementia in the prevention of delirium in case of hospitalisation. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Non-geriatric wards of an 1120 bed general teaching hospital in s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: Of a group of 366 hospitalised patients, treated by the geriatric consultation team from January 2002 until June 2003, the patients who used rivastigmine chronically were compared with a randomly selected subgroup of all patients not treated with rivastigmine. MEASUREMENTS: The occurrence and duration of a delirium, co-morbidity, use of medication, length of hospitalisation and psychosocial data were collected from the medical charts of the geriatric consultation team. RESULTS: 11 patients (3%) were chronic rivastigmine users. A control group of 29 subjects was randomly selected from the non-rivastigmine users of the patient population. In the group that used rivastigmine five patients (45.5%) developed a delirium, compared with 8 (88.9%) in the control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Chronic rivastigmine use may contribute to the prevention of a delirium in a high-risk group of elderly hospitalised patients suffering from dementia.
        
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Dautzenberg PL, Mulder LJ, Olde Rikkert MG, Wouters CJ, Loonen AJ (2004) Delirium in elderly hospitalised patients: protective effects of chronic rivastigmine usage Int J Geriatr Psychiatry19: 641-4
Dautzenberg PL, Mulder LJ, Olde Rikkert MG, Wouters CJ, Loonen AJ (2004) Int J Geriatr Psychiatry19: 641-4