Annals of Long Term Care

Many patients with dementia benefit from palliative care at the end of life, an interdisciplinary approach¹ that applies a treatment philosophy of “coping,” rather than “curing,” for patients with an advanced or terminal illness. Palliation envisions the final phase of life as peaceful, dignified, and as free from suffering as possible, with death viewed as an inevitable consequence of terminal illness to be managed thoughtfully once the outcome becomes clear.² To achieve this, the palliative approach emphasizes symptom management, psychosocial support, communication, and coordination of care.^3,4 Intensive or intrusive medical interventions considered futile or having serious potential for harm are avoided, and the focus is instead on relieving pain and suffering.¹ When adopting a palliative approach, it is important for providers to be aware of the many ethical and spiritual issues that can arise in conjunction with end-of-life care.

Studies show that optimally managing frequently experienced syndromes of pain, grief, fatigue, and insomnia can greatly improve quality of life for terminally ill patients.^2,5 Psychiatric symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, eating problems, psychoses, and delirium, increase suffering and also require careful attention.^4-7 An effective palliative approach encompasses grief and bereavement support for the patient, his or her family, and the treatment team.

Despite shifting the focus away from finding a cure, the palliative approach does not exclude all disease-modifying therapies. In fact, the palliative continuum of care balances disease-modifying and palliative treatments based on an individualized treatment plan. In some cases, disease-modifying therapies (eg, antibiotics) represent the best method for reducing suffering. Although dementia-specific drugs such as cholinesterase inhibitors or memantine are available, these do not correct the underlying pathologies (eg, Alzheimer’s disease [AD]) or change outcomes and are best viewed as supportive rather than disease-modifying therapies. In this paper, we focus on dementia as an example of a terminal condition in which palliative care practices can be helpful.

Disease Progression and Mortality in Dementia

Patients with dementia are typically elders who have concomitant medical conditions, and many suffer great emotional distress and physical pain. Most dementias encountered in this population are incurable, progressive, and markedly reduce life expectancy. In one study,⁸ patients with AD survived a median of 4.5 years after diagnosis. Dementia is regarded as a terminal disorder, regardless of the final cause of death, which is frequently a comorbid medical condition, such as sepsis.⁹ Physicians and families often fail to realize the deleterious effect of dementia on life expectancy. A study of dementia in US nursing homes found that staff thought only 1% of their dementia residents had a life expectancy of <6 months, yet 71% of these residents died within that timeframe.¹⁰

The traditional approach for treating comorbid medical conditions in patients with dementia is definitive management, despite the presence of dementia. This approach is most effective with a motivated, cooperative patient who is able to participate in treatment planning and decision-making; however, many patients with advanced dementia are unable to make such decisions, express their preferences, or participate in their own care. Instead, these patients may resist medical procedures, requiring sedation or restraints, which carry their own risks.

When treating serious medical conditions in patients with dementia, physicians often find themselves in conflict with family surrogate decision makers regarding the ethics of providing versus withholding intensive treatments for their dependent relative. Providing education, access to counseling, and spiritual support for families is part of the palliative care approach, and ideally a palliative care team would handle these complex and often emotional discussions with families.

Minimizing the Medical Burden on Patients

Acknowledging the terminal nature of dementia, especially advanced dementia, permits a shift to palliative care. The palliative approach emphasizes relief from suffering in the near term and recognizes that aggressive or intrusive interventions for comorbid medical conditions may be fruitless or even counterproductive in these patients.

A shift to palliation should lead to a review of treatment goals when considering any diagnostic procedures, hospitalizations, and medications for existing and newly emergent medical conditions. Hospitalization, in particular, is risky for patients with dementia, increasing the likelihood of falls, delirium, restraint-related injuries, over-sedation, and adverse effects associated with various medical procedures.

Risks of Polypharmacy

Many elders take a variety of medications to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and osteoporosis. For individuals having a typical lifespan, this provides optimum management and helps prevent significant events such as myocardial infarction or stroke, thereby improving health outcomes and increasing longevity. However, polypharmacy increases the likelihood of drug interactions, with the risk of drug-drug interactions increasing as the number of medications used increases. For example, highly protein-bound drugs (eg, fluoxetine) may increase the active fraction of commonly prescribed medications such as warfarin or digoxin; and many selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) interact with other drugs via a cytochrome P450 pathway. A large medication burden commonly causes delirium, cognitive decline, and loss of appetite.¹¹ Such adverse events are of particular concern in patients with advanced dementia and a limited lifespan, for whom the putative benefits of aggressive treatment are often less evident.

Practice guidelines, designed to promote state-of-the-art medical care, may inadvertently promote polypharmacy in the elder with dementia and provide a false sense of comfort to physicians, who proceed to prescribe even more medication to their patients, believing that their knowledge and practices fall within the bounds of recognized expert opinion. Guidelines for managing conditions common in the elderly population, such as diabetes, osteoporosis, and hyperlipidemia, are designed not only to promote symptom relief, but also to reduce the risk of long-term complications. They often recommend increasingly complex regimens and fail to countenance that someone with dementia may have multiple conditions that interact or that, given the reduced life span associated with dementia, the negative effects of intensive treatment may outweigh the long-term benefits.¹²

Certain medications are generally considered contraindicated in patients with severe dementia. In particular, anticholinergics and long-acting benzodiazepines should be avoided and antipsychotics should be used sparingly. Dementias, particularly AD, reflect a state of cholinergic deficiency that is exacerbated by even modest amounts of anticholinergic medication.¹³ Although the anticholinergic effect of an individual drug may be minimal, the cumulative anticholinergic burden of multiple medications may be problematic for patients with dementia.¹⁴ Each situation requires a careful risk-benefit analysis. For example, many medications for urinary incontinence are anticholinergics, yet their use may enhance a patient’s quality of life; and clonazepam, a long-acting benzodiazepine, can suppress rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior syndromes, but potential adverse effects include ataxia and cognitive impairment.

Put simply, considering the relatively short lifespan of patients with advanced, incurable dementia, the limited benefits many medications offer are outweighed by their potential adverse effects. Thus, when taking a palliative approach, the focus of therapeutic efforts should be to manage symptoms that detract from quality of life in the near term, using the least amount of medication and fewest interventions necessary.