Health It

New evidence has pointed out that the antipsychotic drugs used in elderly patients may come with their own risks and dangers.

A research carried out at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Boston revealed that the routinely prescribed drugs for psychosis were as dangerous as the newer ones. More than 10,900 people were surveyed across nursing homes in British Columbia over a span of ten years before coming to this conclusion. People surveyed under this category were those who had received an antipsychotic drug within 90 days of getting admitted in a hospital.

Antipsychotics could be deleterious

Earlier, it was thought that overuse of newer psychotropic drugs could be harmful to the elderly. But now, according to the above survey, conventional psychotropic drugs such as antidepressants and benzodiazepines had a greater risk of fractures of femurs and even death. The incidence of cardiac failure and pneumonia remained unchanged in both the drug groups. Earlier, diazepam or alprozolam were considered to be extremely safe in older patients and were even believed to reduce the stress levels.

The elderly patients can suffer from nervous disorders and dementia, which require proper medication and psychotherapy. The danger lies in that, most of them also suffer from some or the other form of chronic disease, such as hypertension, diabetes and osteoporosis. Some of the antipsychotic drugs have been found to worsen the existing disease, leading to heart failure or bone fractures, at the slightest provocation. It is now advisable to club counseling along with a light regimen of psychotropic drugs to alleviate the alarming side effects of antipsychotic drugs.

Antipsychotic drugs therefore, need to be carefully administered in the elderly patients, lest they result in irreversible side effects and complications.

Under the provisions of Defense Base Act, compensation benefits are available to civilian employees working on US military bases outside United States. An employee working on such critical assignment may suffer injuries that might be of permanent nature. The injuries are categorized into scheduled and unscheduled injuries.

Scheduled injuries

Under the provisions of section 908, the following injuries come under the ambit of scheduled injuries:

Loss of body parts including arm, leg, hand, foot. eye, thumb, toe and loss of hearing. Each of the body part loss is entitled to varied compensation rates with 312 week compensation for arm loss. For other body parts loss the compensation is as under:

Leg loss: 288 weeks’, hand loss: 244 weeks’, foot loss: 205 weeks’, eye loss: 166 weeks’, loss of hearing: 200 weeks’.

The number of weeks for which the compensation is to be awarded is judged on the basis of injury.

A person who has any of the above listed injury is entitled to compensation claims under scheduled injury category.

Calculating the disability rate

For example, a solider gets hit in the arm. In such case, the doctor judges the impairment limit to be 65%. Since a person hit in the arm is entitled to 312 weeks’ compensation, so this will come to be 312 weeks into 65% = 202.8 weeks.

If we assume that the average weekly wage is $1,123 and the compensation rate is $749, the final rate paid will come up to 202.8 into $749 = $151,947.

Concussion finds its origin in the Latin word concutera, referring to a violent shaking. Concussion is the most common traumatic brain injury. Concussion has been ranked in the following three categories by American Academy of Neurology Guidelines based on its severity:

Grade 1: No loss of consciousness is reported in this category.

Grade 2: The symptoms last for more than 15 minutes, though the person does not suffer from loss of consciousness.

Grade 3: Loss of consciousness is reported in this category.

Concussion symptoms: 

A person suffering from traumatic brain injury suffers from the following symptoms:

Headache, dizziness, vomiting, nausea, loss of consciousness and display of emotions that do not match their personality.

Therapies for Concussion

The general symptoms of Concussion do not require any treatment and go away naturally. Only about one percent of the cases require surgery. A person suffering from traumatic brain injury is advised rest and is required to keep away from alcohol and drugs. Ibuprofen can be taken in case headache persists.

The symptoms of concussion generally go away completely within three weeks. However, in certain cases reoccurrence of symptoms is noticed. This may lead to conditions as dementia Pugilistica.

Hindrance in early recovery

Though the usual recovery time in traumatic brain injury is three weeks, the recovery period might extend owing to multiple factors as clinical depression, increased period of amnesia and poor health.

A research study published in 2009 indicated that people suffering from concussion exhibit a decline in their physical and mental performances.

Canadian researchers view the term concussion as a misnomer considering the severity of the medical condition. This needs to be done to bring increased awareness among general people and make them aware of the treatment required.

Concussion needs to be viewed with seriousness as any laxity on part of the patient might lead to serious consequences and even result in death in some instances.