Sleep Deprivation May Exacerbate Frailty’s Effects on Mental Health in Older Adults.
Frailty is a typical ‘geriatric syndrome’ representing the increased risk of a catastrophic decline in older adults’ functioning and health. This syndrome leads to the risk of poor health outcomes like incident disability, falls, and mortality. However, a new study published in the ‘Journal of the American Geriatrics Society’ examines the combined effect of short sleep and Frailty over mental health and depressive symptoms. Previously, the experts have only linked sleep deprivation and Frailty with depression.
The study was conducted on older adults living in China. They were frail at the beginning of this study. The elderly later developed depressive symptoms. The older adults who were already experiencing worsening Frailty developed higher levels of depression throughout this study. Moreover, sleep deprivation (short sleep) was stated to ‘exacerbate’ these effects.
Various experts believe that new research and efficient methods are required to detect severe Frailty during routine clinical practice. Even the Geriatrics Society’s findings suggest that interventions can be made with the help of exercise and mindfulness-based stress reduction alternatives to target sleep disturbances. These interventions can lessen the negative effect of ‘Frailty’ on the psychological well-being of older adults.
It is seen that the majority of the older adults that are frail or pre-frail are more than the age of 85 years. Even sleep disturbances are also stated to be prevalent among the elderly of this age. It calls for getting a thorough examination by the top neurologists.
The neurologists will test the frailty syndrome and other neurological disorders to find the relation between sleep deprivation and mental health. To provide a complete diagnosis to the elderly patients, the Neurology Specialists will use the Electronic Frailty Index or eFI. It is linked to the medical record systems that use the data related to 36 conditions of Frailty. The GPS in the course will identify the mild, moderate, and severe frailty conditions. Based on this information, the neurologist will suggest the hospitalization of the patient.
According to the co-author of this research published in the ‘Journal of the American Geriatrics Society’, Xinyi Zhao, Ph.D., Peking University, Beijing, “We all hope that the research findings published will raise awareness among the people about the combined effect of Frailty and sleep deprivation on the mental health of the older adults. This will help people to imply interventions to improve the sleep quality among the pre-frail and frail older adults.”
So, if you have an elderly facing this condition, then it’s time to visit the experienced and best neurologist at Complete Neurological Care.
