Relative Mortality of Chronically Ill Geriatric Patients with Organic Brain Damage, Before and After Relocation†

Abstract

Elderly patients in whom mental impairment is associated with organic brain damage (chronic brain syndrome) usually bear a higher mortality risk than do other sick geriatric patients, especially under the stress of relocation. When St. Anne''s Hospital moved, the patients with chronic brain syndrome had the highest mortality rate during the following year. Apparently these brain-damaged subjects failed to cope with the situation until it became real (after relocation). In a stress prevention program adopted when a geriatric institution plans to move, special attention should be paid to the subpopulation with chronic brain syndrome in the period immediately following the relocation.