The contribution of cognitive impairment, medical burden, and psychopathology to the functional status of geriatric psychiatric inpatients.

ABSTRACT

In order to define the contributions of cognitive impairment, medical burden, and psychopathology to the functional status of geriatric psychiatric patients, a forward-looking, retrospective study of 106 consecutive admissions to a geriatric psychiatric unit at the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center Hospital was done. It was found that psychopathology and cognitive status, but not medical burden, contributed to the variance in functional status of geriatric psychiatric inpatients for both admission scores and for changes in scores during hospitalization. Improvements in cognitive state and psychopathology were associated with improvements in functional status during hospitalization.