Psychoeducation for chronic cognitive impairment and reduced early readmissions amongst pulmonary inpatients.

Patients with chronic pulmonary disease have been found to have among the highest rates of early (30 days) readmissions by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Proactive identification and psychoeducational intervention for the effect of chronic cognitive impairment on readmission have not been tested in this population. This is a pre-post quality improvement study for service-wide inpatient pulmonary readmission rates in chronic pulmonary disease. We examined the impact of screening patients for likely cognitive impairment and providing patients/families with psychoeducation regarding 'forgetfulness' on 30-day readmission rates on an inpatient pulmonary service. We observed a 50% decline in early readmissions (25.7% > 12.3%) for the inpatient pulmonary service after initiation of screening and psychoeducation of patients/families for improved adherence despite cognitive impairment (t = -2.53, df= 17, p = 0.011). A randomly assigned, controlled clinical trial is warranted.

Family Consultation to Reduce Early Hospital Readmissions among Patients with End Stage Kidney Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have mandated reducing early (30-day) hospital readmissions to improve patient care and reduce costs. Patients with ESKD have elevated early readmission rates, due in part to complex medical regimens but also cognitive impairment, literacy difficulties, low social support, and mood problems. We developed a brief family consultation intervention to address these risk factors and tested whether it would reduce early readmissions. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: One hundred twenty hospitalized adults with ESKD (mean age=58 years; 50% men; 86% black, 14% white) were recruited from an urban, inpatient nephrology unit. Patients were randomized to the family consultation (n=60) or treatment-as-usual control (n=60) condition. Family consultations, conducted before discharge at bedside or via telephone, educated the family about the patient's cognitive and behavioral risk factors for readmission, particularly cognitive impairment, and how to compensate for them. Blinded medical record reviews were conducted 30 days later to determine readmission status (primary outcome) and any hospital return visit (readmission, emergency department, or observation; secondary outcome). Logistic regressions tested the effects of the consultation versus control on these outcomes. RESULTS: Primary analyses were intent-to-treat. The risk of a 30-day readmission after family consultation (n=12, 20%) was 0.54 compared with treatment-as-usual controls (n=19, 32%), although this effect was not statistically significant (odds ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval, 0.23 to 1.24; P=0.15). A similar magnitude, nonsignificant result was observed for any 30-day hospital return visit: family consultation (n=19, 32%) versus controls (n=28, 47%; odds ratio, 0.53; 95% confidence interval, 0.25 to 1.1; P=0.09). Per protocol analyses (excluding three patients who did not receive the assigned consultation) revealed similar results. CONCLUSIONS: A brief consultation with family members about the patient's cognitive and psychosocial risk factors had no significant effect on 30-day hospital readmission in patients with ESKD.

Prospective correlates of early (30 day) readmissions on a Cardiothoracic Surgery Service.

Known to vary widely among hospitals for unclear reasons, early readmissions are associated with higher mortality and are suspected to frequently be due to inadequate discharge preparation/planning. It has been previously documented that the strongest and most consistent predictor of early readmissions in CHF patients is chronic cognitive impairment, and compensatory assistance with adherence on discharge improves early readmission rates. Prospective observational study. The present investigation examined multiple putative perioperative predictors of early readmission in a hospitalized Cardiothoracic Surgery Service. A subtest of the Mini-Cog, Short Term Memory, was the strongestunivariate predictor of early readmissions (p < .001), but the overall Mini-Cog (p = .024), Age (p = .045), Number of Admissions over the Preceding Year (p = .036), an Anxiety Scale (p = .035), Years of Education (p = .055) and a Depression Scale (p = .056) also demonstrated covariation. In a Logistic Regression, only Short Term Memory survived as a predictor variable (p = .007), correctly classifying 76% of patients. Chronic cognitive impairment is a predictor of early readmissions in Cardiothoracic patients. A brief bedside exam interpreted in medical context may permit identification of patients requiring familial assistance for adherence on discharge.

Indicators of Cognitive Impairment From a Medical Record Review: Correlations With Early (30-d) Readmissions Among Hospitalized Patients in a Nephrology Unit.

BACKGROUND: Patients with end-stage renal disease have the highest 30-day hospital readmission rates of any medical condition. Previous research suggests that cognitive impairment contributes to readmission. It is important to identify patients at risk for early readmission, and this might be accomplished efficiently using medical record data. METHOD: We reviewed the medical records of 100 patients with kidney disease (57 women, mean age = 61.2) who were hospitalized in the nephrology unit at an urban U.S. hospital. For each patient, we recorded easily available indicators of cognitive impairment along with other potential risk factors, and also recorded the number of 30-day readmissions over the past year. RESULTS: Half of the sample (n = 50) had at least 1 readmission (median = 0.5, range: 0-20). A lifetime history of delirium, which is a known marker of chronic cognitive impairment, was significantly related to readmissions, and several other impairment indicators (positive head imaging, history of seizures, and history of hypoxia) showed similar trends. A "cognitive impairment index" (positive for one or more variables possibly reflecting impaired central nervous system) was significantly related to the presence of a 30-day readmission, beyond the effects of a number of behavioral and medical covariates. CONCLUSIONS: Easily accessible cognitive impairment markers, especially a known history of delirium, may be useful to identify patients in nephrology units who are at increased risk for early hospital readmissions. Interventions can be targeted to these patients with the goal of reducing the likelihood of readmissions and improving health care outcomes.

"Alert and Oriented × 3?" Correlates of Mini-Cog Performance in a Post/Nondelirious Intensive Care Unit Sample.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment has been found to be a predictor of adverse medical outcomes, including nonadherence, recurrent medical crises resulting in early readmissions, and death. OBJECTIVE: The Mini-Cog has been proposed for bedside/clinic cognitive testing. Its validity as a measure of central nervous system (CNS) impairment has never been tested against measures of CNS-medical history, CNS scans, selected laboratory findings, observed in-hospital nondelirious memory impairment, or collateral history from family. METHODS: We observed Mini-Cog performance in 107 post/nondelirious medical intensive care unit patients and tested its association with age, CNS-medical history, CNS scans, selected laboratory findings, and behavioral history (in-hospital observation of memory problems and collateral history from family or significant others). RESULTS: The overall Mini-Cog covaried with age, various measures of CNS impairment, abnormal laboratory findings, and measures of preadmission "forgetfulness" per family and by in-hospital staff observation. Unique variance in predicting overall Mini-Cog scores included age, positive CNS scan, and behavioral history. Of 91 patients found to be "alert and oriented × 3," 76% were impaired in immediate memory, short-term memory, or clock drawing. CONCLUSIONS: The Mini-Cog appears to be a brief, yet valid, measure of CNS dysfunction that significantly enhances sensitivity of evaluation at the bedside. Failure to evaluate patients with a formal examination like the Mini-Cog appears to miss up to 76% of patients with moderate cognitive impairment.

Behavioral factors and hospital admissions/readmissions in patients with CHF.

BACKGROUND: Wasted health care resources have become a central concern in American health care. Heart failure has one of the highest readmission rates amongst all conditions studied in Medicare/Medicaid populations. OBJECTIVE: The present study was an attempt to cross-sectionally identify correlates of number of past-year admissions and 30-day readmissions in patients with congestive heart failure. METHODS: Eighty-four patients with congestive heart failure were recruited during hospitalization and underwent a semistructured interview for basic clinical/demographic information and completed several questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety, and spirituality. RESULTS: Depression, history of substance abuse, and history of coronary artery disease displayed borderline results as correlates of past-year admissions. Immediate memory and psychiatric history (positive Patient Health Questionnaire 9, acknowledged history of treatment, and use of an antidepressant per chart) were associated with 30-day readmission rates. Indices of congestive heart failure severity (ejection fraction and last recorded B-type natriuretic peptide level) were not. CONCLUSIONS: Present results suggest that both a psychiatric history and cognitive impairment are possible determinants of early readmission.

Psychological and physiological predictors of angina during exercise-induced ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVE: This study compares sensory-biological, cognitive-emotional, and cognitive-interpretational factors in predicting angina on an exercise treadmill test (ETT). METHODS: A total of 163 patients with ETT-induced ischemia and coronary artery disease in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Psychophysiological Investigations of Myocardial Ischemia study were given an ETT, during which 79 patients reported angina. We assessed the following as potential predictors of self-reported anginal pain: sensory-biological factors (ß-endorphin reactivity, hot pain threshold, and maximal ST-segment depression), cognitive-emotional factors (negative affect and symptom perception), and cognitive-interpretational factors (self-reported history of exercise-induced angina). Models were covariate adjusted with predictors examined individually and as part of component blocks. RESULTS: Logistic regression revealed that history of angina (odds ratio [OR] = 17.41, 95% confidence interval = 7.16-42.34) and negative affect (OR = 1.65, 95% confidence interval = 1.17-2.34), but not maximal ST-segment depression, hot pain threshold, ß-endorphin reactivity, or symptom perception, were significant predictors of angina on the ETT. The sensory-biological block was not significantly predictive of anginal pain (χ(2)block = 5.15, p = .741). However, the cognitive-emotional block (χ(2)block = 11.19, p = .004) and history of angina (cognitive-interpretation; χ(2)block = 54.87, p < .001) were predictive of ETT angina. A model including all variables revealed that only history of angina was predictive of ETT pain (OR = 16.39, p < .001), although negative affect approached significance (OR = 1.45, p = .07). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with ischemia, cognitive-emotional and cognitive-interpretational factors are important predictors of exercise angina.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are correlates of angina pectoris by recent history and an ischemia-positive treadmill test in patients with documented coronary artery disease in the pimi study.

Objective. We tested the association of specific psychological characteristics in patients having stable coronary disease with the reporting of anginal symptoms during daily activities, and positive exercise testing. Methods. One hundred and ninety-six patients with documented CAD enrolled in the Psychophysiological Investigations of Myocardial Ischemia (PIMI) Study completed an anginal history questionnaire and a battery of psychometric tests. They also underwent standardized exercise treadmill tests. Results. Patients with a recent history of angina were more likely to be female, and had higher Beck Depression (P = .002), State Anxiety (P = .001), Trait Anxiety (P = .03), Harm Avoidance (P = .04) and Muscle Tension (P = .004) scores than patients who had no recent history of angina. Along with several treadmill variables indicating more severe disease state and reduced exercise tolerance, patients who developed angina on a positive treadmill test also displayed higher scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (P = .003) and State Anxiety (P = .004) scales. Conclusions. Several psychological characteristics, and most notably anxiety and depression, are strong correlates of recent angina and angina in the presence of ischemia provoked by treadmill testing.

Healthcare utilization and emotional distress in coronary artery disease patients.

BACKGROUND: No studies to-date have examined the various types of emotional distress (ED) for their relative power at predicting costs in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the association between expenditure for CAD patients and various measures of emotional/psychological functioning. METHOD: The authors assessed dollars spent in relation to dimensions of the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised and traditional risk factors in the year preceding referral of 164 CAD patients for stress management. RESULTS: Total costs were associated with the Anxiety, Phobic Anxiety, and Psychoticism scales. Hypertension was also associated with increased costs. CONCLUSIONS: Present results indicate an association of higher costs with anxiety. Because the symptoms of anxiety overlap with those of cardiac disease, increased vigilance by both patients and practitioners, resulting in more testing and longer hospital stays is not surprising. Results suggest that there is a potential for substantial cost savings with enhanced detection and treatment of anxiety-spectrum emotional distress.

Screening, diagnosis & monitoring of depression/distress in CHF patients.

Objective and validated measures of depression/distress (anxiety and anger) are available and readily usable at the bedside or in clinic. Foremost among these is the Patient's Health Questionnaire--an adaptation of DSM IV criteria for Major Depressive Disorder that permits administration and scoring by nursing or physician personnel, and quantification of the intensity of depression. A score of 10 or greater indicates a need for evaluation/treatment. Because of patient denial/minimization/alexithymia, PHQ negatives should undergo further screening by having a spouse or friend complete a depression/distress rating scale. The only standardized, normed, and validated spouse/friend scale presently available is the Ketterer Stress Symptom Frequency Checklist, which is available by internet.

Cardiovascular symptoms in coronary-artery disease patients are strongly correlated with emotional distress.

BACKGROUND: The relationship of cardiovascular events and cardiovascular symptoms is unclear, and physical symptoms, including most cardiovascular symptoms, are known to be influenced by emotional distress. OBJECTIVE: Authors examined the relative strength of association of multiple measures of emotional distress and accepted cardiac risk factors with five common cardiac symptoms (chest pain, fatigue, palpitations, presyncope, and dyspnea). METHOD: The authors tested the association of multiple cardiovascular symptoms with various measures of emotional distress (i.e., the scales of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised) and the putative risk factors for disease status in 109 patients with documented coronary artery disease. RESULTS: Measures of emotional distress were stronger correlates of patient-rated distress due to the symptoms than were traditional risk factors. CONCLUSION: Treatment of emotional distress may be a viable strategy for symptom-control in cardiovascular disease.

Empirically derived psychometric screening for emotional distress in coronary artery disease patients: efficiency, efficacy, and source.

BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: Multiple types of evidence implicate emotional distress as a cause of adverse outcomes in individuals with coronary artery disease. The present study was intended to determine the most accurate and user-friendly means of screening patients with coronary artery disease for emotional distress using age at initial diagnosis as the criterion. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Two clinical databases consisting of patients with documented coronary artery disease, each contained multiple measures of emotional distress, were used. These databases were investigated by tests of covariation of the emotional distress measures with age at initial diagnosis. If these were statistically significant, sequential testing of cutpoints yielded the minimum score for positivity. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value calculations were made for the significant measures. Single-sex tests of covariation were also examined. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The Patient Health Questionnaire was the only significant bedside measure of emotional distress (Pearson r = -0.149, P = .058), with a cutpoint of 10 or greater. The Beck Depression Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Crown-Crisp Phobic Anxiety Scale failed to reach significance as covariates of age at initial diagnosis. Substantially greater sensitivity occurs with larger and more cumbersome measures of emotional distress. For example, the Ketterer Stress Symptom Frequency Checklist yielded consistent results with greater variance explained, particularly in men (Pearson r for self-ratings of anger = -0.339, P = .001; depression = -0.363, P = .005; anxiety = -0.273, P = .028). Brief bedside/clinic screening of emotional in populations with coronary artery disease is possible and necessary to improve quality of life, compliance (eg, smoking cessation), and possibly morbidity/mortality. Initial screening can and should occur at the bedside/clinic by cardiology or primary care personnel using the Patient Health Questionnaire.

"Major" Depressive Disorder, coronary heart disease, and the DSM-IV threshold problem.

Seventy-seven patients with documented coronary heart disease (CHD) were evaluated for demographic/risk factor characteristics, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) according to the Patient's Health Questionnaire (PHQ - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV criteria), and emotional distress by the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Early age at initial diagnosis for coronary heart disease (AAID) was used as a proxy for disease malignancy because early AAID is a known predictor of early mortality. MDD was unrelated to early AAID despite being strongly associated with all the scales of the SCL-90-R. Several of the SCL-90-R scales were significantly associated with early AAID in the sample as a whole (Depression, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Anxiety, Paranoia, and Psychoticism) and after removal of the patients meeting criteria for MDD (residual N = 54). Our results suggest a new criterion for determining whether depression, or any mental disorder, is "major": onset or aggravation of serious medical illness.

Do others really know us better? Predicting migraine activity from self- and other-ratings of negative emotion.

OBJECTIVE: The validity of self-reported negative emotion to predict health status is limited by response biases, introspection limitations, and methodological confounds. The reports of significant others about the patients' negative emotion may circumvent these limitations. This study sought to compare the validity of self- versus other-reported negative emotion as a correlate of migraine headache activity. METHODS: On 89 patients with migraine headache (74 women and 15 men), we correlated self-ratings and significant-other-ratings of patients' negative emotion with patients' report of migraine frequency and severity, which were assessed both cross-sectionally and prospectively, 3 months later. RESULTS: Other-reported negative emotion correlated with migraine activity better than did self-reported negative emotion, both cross-sectionally and prospectively. Patterns were different for women and men, however. Among women, other-reported negative emotion was positively associated with migraine activity. Among men, other-reported negative emotion was inversely associated with migraine frequency and severity. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that it may be valuable to obtain significant-other-ratings when assessing negative emotion in patients and that the genders may differ in how others' ratings are related to the patients' health.

What's "unstable" in unstable angina?

The role of emotional distress (e.g., anger, depression, and anxiety) in anginal chest discomfort (ACD) may have been underestimated. The authors review the empirical studies in this area, which are inconsistent with the standard theory on the ischemia-angina relationship; summarize the substantial evidence indicating a strong and consistent cross-sectional/prospective epidemiological association of emotional distress and ischemia/ACD; review the distress-targeted, interventional evidence confirming a causal relationship (i.e., reduced chest discomfort and health system utilization), thus confirming clinical utility of such interventions; and explore the possible mechanisms that might account for the relationship between emotional distress and chest discomfort. Substantial clinical benefit may be achieved by aggressively detecting and treating emotional distress in ACD patients.

Familial transmissability of early age at initial diagnosis in coronary heart disease (CHD): males only, and mediated by psychosocial/emotional distress?

In equal sized samples, a strong association between a positive Family History of Early Coronary Heart Disease (FamHx) and early Age at Initial Diagnosis (AAID) was found only for males, and thus all further analyses were restricted to males. All three scales of the self-report version of the Ketterer Stress Symptom Frequency Checklist--Revised (KSSFCR)--"AIAI" (or aggravation, irritation, anger, and impatience), Depression, and Anxiety--were associated with both a positive FamHx and early AAID. A series of regression models was used to demonstrate that the KSSFCR scales may plausibly account for 22-32% of the variance in the relationship between a positive FamHx and early AAID. Because of previously documented denial in males, the analyses were repeated in a subgroup of males for whom Spouse/Friend KSSFCRs were obtained. Spouse/Friend-reported AIAI was related to both early FamHx and early AAID, and could account for 68% of the common variance.

The big mush: psychometric measures are confounded and non-independent in their association with age at initial diagnosis of Ischaemic Coronary Heart Disease.

The present study uses early diagnosis of ischaemic coronary heart disease (ICHD) as a proxy for disease malignancy in testing the statistical strength of association, and uniqueness/confounding, of several psychometric scales that have previously been found to prospectively predict death in cardiac samples (Beck Depression Inventory, Crown-Crisp Phobic Anxiety Scale, Type D Scale & Ketterer Stress Symptom Frequency Checklist). Eighty-three patients (no. of females = 35) with documented ICHD were assessed for traditional and psychometric risk factors. The psychometric risk factors were moderately to strongly intercorrelated, and strongly confounded in their relationship to age at initial diagnosis. In a stepwise multiple regression, only the AIAI (aggravation, irritation, anger and impatience) scale of the Ketterer Stress Symptom Frequency Checklist (KSSFC) survived as a predictor of age at initial diagnosis (P = 0.016). In a subgroup of the sample for whom the Spouse/Friend Version of the KSSFC was received (n = 58, or 70%), spouse/friend reported AIAI survived as the only predictor (P = 0.010). While present results need replication in a prospective study of diagnosed ICHD patients for all important clinical outcomes, only one psychometric screening instrument may be necessary to identify patients in need of treatment.