Background: Citalopram and escitalopram are commonly used serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for the treatment of depression and anxiety; which are known to cause corrected QT interval (QTc) prolongation. Methods: In a sample of patients in older adult psychiatry who were prescribed citalopram or escitalopram, the doses, history of QTc prolongation, concurrent medications that may prolong QTc, electrocardiogram (ECG) reviews, and any discussion about the risk were audited. Results: The sample consisted of 17 older adult patients aged 65 years or more. Most of the patients (94.1%) were prescribed citalopram and only one patient was on escitalopram. Citalopram was prescribed commonly at 20mg (64.7%), and two (1.8%) patients were above the recommended dose for older adults. Escitalopram was within the recommended dose. There was no history of QTc prolongation in any patient. Concurrent medications that could prolong QTc were identified in 35.3% of the patients; all of these were antipsychotics. A small proportion (11.8%) of the patients had documentation stating QTc prolongation and arrhythmia risks for citalopram or escitalopram. A review of ECG when initiating or adjusting treatment was noted in only one patient. Conclusion: Although citalopram and escitalopram dosages were within the recommended limit, a considerable proportion of patients had concurrent medications with an additional risk of prolonging QTc. It is essential for health professionals to discuss and provide written information about the cardiac risk associated with citalopram and escitalopram with older patients and their caregivers.

Aims 1) To re-audit the current practice of depot prescribing within the Wolverhampton Older Adult Enhanced Community Mental Health Teams (ECMHT). 2) To assess whether the implementation of a memory aid for prescribers has improved compliance of current practice to the Black Country Healthcare Foundation Trust (BCHFT) standard operating procedures (SOP) protocol. Methods All depot cards were identified from the Wolverhampton Older Adult ECMHT in January 2022. The cards were assessed for their compliance with the 15 standards for depot prescription writing as set out by the BCHFT SOP protocol. If a standard was not met, reasons for non-compliance were documented. The compliance rate for each standard was then compared to the results from a previous audit performed in January 2021. Results A total of 13 depot cards were identified. Out of the 15 standards, 6 of them had a 100% compliance rate. The two standards with the lowest compliance rate were ‘Standard 3’ and ‘Standard 7’. Standard 3 states that “Prescriptions should be signed and dated appropriately, including full signature and name printed”. This standard only achieved 15% compliance. This was a 60% reduction from the previous 75% compliance. Standard 7 states that “The interval expressed should be using the word ‘every’”. This standard achieved a compliance rate of 31%. This was a 12% improvement from the previous 19%. Conclusion This re-audit has shown there is still significant room for improvement regarding depot prescribing. The reason for non-compliance to Standard 3 was largely due to prescribers not printing their names alongside their signatures. This is likely due to the lack of an assigned space for “Prescriber's name” to be printed on the form. Also, like the previous audit in 2021, prescribers are still not using the word ‘every’ when filling in the frequency of depots (Standard 7). Despite this, there is a 12% improvement in compliance rate which shows that the memory aid did help some prescribers to comply to Standard 7. These results will be discussed at the trust's Clinical Audit and Effectiveness Committee meeting. We will then revise the community depot cards to include columns for both prescriber's signature and name. Finally, we will harmonise depot cards from all localities in BCHFT. We will continue to include the memory aid at the front of all depot card folders as it has proven effective. We aim to complete these by March 2022.

Most of the elderly stay at home, along with their family members. Some live alone and others in old age homes. The preference to stay in the family home is well recognised. The care of the elderly primarily involves basic care for the activities of daily life, support regarding illnesses, providing medications and other medical treatment, nursing care, and dealing with psychological stress and loneliness. Caring is an enjoyable experience, but can be psychologically stressful for the family caregivers beyond a point, and many may suffer from burnout. While most families understand the needs of their elderly members and try to support them, there are still concerns of inadequate care, neglect, and even abuse. Lack of time is often quoted as the reason by the family members, besides lack of awareness and expertise in taking care. Awareness of the needs of the elderly, a family-specific strategy, and keenness to care can change the scenario, and the quality of care the elderly get in their family home by the members can be greatly improved.

Objective: This study aimed to understand the experiences of palliative care patients when accessing or making decisions about out of hours (OOH) services. It also aimed to illuminate barriers and enablers to accessing appropriate and timely care following the introduction of the 2004 New General Medical Services Contract. Method: Longitudinal prospective qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and telephone interviews over 6 months and analysed for thematic content. 32 patients defined as receiving palliative care in six General Practices and three hospices selected on the basis of size and rural/urban location in Southern England were recruited. Results: Continuity of care was highly valued. Participants described the importance of being known by the healthcare team, and the perceived positive implications continuity could have for the quality of care they received and the trust they had in their care. Various factors prevented participants from seeking help or advice from OOH services, despite having health concerns that may have benefitted from medical assistance. Prior poor experience, limited knowledge of services and knowing who to call and, indeed, when to call were all factors that reportedly shaped participants' use of OOH services. Conclusions: Interpersonal or relationship continuity and management continuity are vital to the process of optimising the patient experience of OOH palliative care. While recent service innovations are tackling some of the issues highlighted, this research reinforces the value patients with palliative care needs places on continuity and the need to improve this aspect of care management.

Background: While it is apparent that old age is associated with multiple health concerns the extent of its multiplicity and burden is often not clear. It was intended to find out self-reported health concerns for the duration of one month and cardiovascular risk factors in middle aged and older adults. Methods: In a cross-sectional survey, attendees of a Healthy Ageing Conference were approached with a semi-structured questionnaire about their health concerns and cardiovascular risks. Risk of a cardiovascular event in 10 years based on QRISK3 was calculated. Results: A considerable proportion of older adults had a range of physical symptoms, depressive mood state and memory problems. Mean number of health problems reported were 4.8±3.3 (male 4.4±3.1 and female 5.0±4.3). Cardiovascular risk was high, mean QRISK3 score for males were 22.2% (±14.4) and for females 10.3% (±6.6) (p<0.05). On average, the heart age was increased by 7.9±6.2 years (8.6±6.6 years for males and 5.0±3.3 for females). The relative risk of participants was 2.1 for males and 1.5 for females for heart attack or stroke within the 10 years, compared to healthy persons. The symptoms and risk factors were elicited easily and the process probably facilitated improving the awareness about the health concerns holistically. The survey also identified issues related to engagement of older adults in the existing health care systems. Conclusions: The results suggested that questionnaire based health screening in community can identify a range of health concerns and identify multi-morbidity in general and cardiovascular risks in particular. This process may help to focus on the appropriate public health awareness and intervention programmes required in the community.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

In this article we address how relatives of people with frontal-variant frontotemporal dementia (fvFTD) experience the illness and how it impacts their lives. We interviewed 6 participants and carried out interpretative phenomenological analysis. We report on 11 themes that reflect distinctive challenges. Five themes relate to witnessing bizarre and strange changes: changed appetites and drives, loss of planning ability, loss of inhibition leading to social embarrassment, risky behavior, and communication problems. Four relate to managing these changes and two to the impact on the person and his or her relationships. Relatives must live with unusual changes in the person with fvFTD and the stigma this carries in social settings. They learn to act assertively for their relatives and put effort into promoting quality of life, using strategies adapted for fvFTD. Relatives grieve the loss of the person with fvFTD and their mutual relationship, but nonetheless find sources of solace and hope.

Background: Depression, as one of the most disabling diseases around the world, had caught the global concern with its rising prevalence rate. There is a growing need of detecting depression, particularly in the old age population which is often left being overlooked. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional community-based study which included 150 Chinese elderly aged 60 and above within Klang Valley area. We obtained the sociodemographic profiles and assessed the status of well-being, depression, and cognitive function of the participants with the help of instruments: WHO Five-Item Well-Being Index, Major (ICD-10) Depression Inventory, and 6-Item Cognitive Impairment Test. Results: We found that the prevalence of depression among the Chinese elderly within Klang Valley region was 10.7%. With multiple logistic regression, decision to consult doctor on depressed mood or memory problem and presence of cognitive impairment were shown to be significantly associated with unipolar major depression, whereas wellbeing status was also found to be statistically correlated with depression in univariate analysis. Conclusion: The prevalence of unipolar depression among Chinese elderly within Klang Valley, Malaysia presented that there was an increased trend compared to the previous studies.

The objective of this study is to establish the effects of age, gender, and education and to provide preliminary normative data for letter and category fluency tasks in the Egyptian Arabic-speaking population. We evaluated 139 cognitively healthy volunteers aged 20-93 by adapting the letter and category verbal fluency tasks for the Egyptian population. On the letter fluency task, mean number of words generated in one-minute beginning with the Arabic letter "Sheen" (pronounced "sh") was 8.14 words per minute (SD = 3.25). Letter fluency was significantly influenced by education. On category fluency tasks, mean number of animal names generated in one minute was 14.63 words (SD = 5.28). Category fluency was significantly influenced by age and education. We were able identify that age significantly affects category fluency while education significantly affected both letter and category fluency. We were also able to provide preliminary normative data for both tasks in the Egyptian population.

Background: Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue currently approved for type 2 diabetes and obesity. Preclinical evidence in transgenic models of Alzheimer's disease suggests that liraglutide exerts neuroprotective effects by reducing amyloid oligomers, normalising synaptic plasticity and cerebral glucose uptake, and increasing the proliferation of neuronal progenitor cells. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the change in cerebral glucose metabolic rate after 12 months of treatment with liraglutide in participants with Alzheimer's disease compared to those who are receiving placebo. Methods/design: ELAD is a 12-month, multi-centre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase IIb trial of liraglutide in participants with mild Alzheimer's dementia. A total of 206 participants will be randomised to receive either liraglutide or placebo as a daily injection for a year. The primary outcome will be the change in cerebral glucose metabolic rate in the cortical regions (hippocampus, medial temporal lobe, and posterior cingulate) from baseline to follow-up in the treatment group compared with the placebo group. The key secondary outcomes are the change from baseline to 12 months in z scores for clinical and cognitive measures (Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale and Executive domain scores of the Neuropsychological Test Battery, Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes, and Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living) and the incidence and severity of treatment-emergent adverse events or clinically important changes in safety assessments. Other secondary outcomes are 12-month change in magnetic resonance imaging volume, diffusion tensor imaging parameters, reduction in microglial activation in a subgroup of participants, reduction in tau formation and change in amyloid levels in a subgroup of participants measured by tau and amyloid imaging, and changes in composite scores using support machine vector analysis in the treatment group compared with the placebo group. Discussion: Alzheimer's disease is a leading cause of morbidity worldwide. As available treatments are only symptomatic, the search for disease-modifying therapies is a priority. If the ELAD trial is successful, liraglutide and GLP-1 analogues will represent an important class of compounds to be further evaluated in clinical trials for Alzheimer's treatment. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01843075 . Registration 30 April 2013.