Cognitive decline and dementia in elderly medical inpatients remain underestimated and underdiagnosed in a recently established university general hospital in Greece.

The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of cognitive decline as well as its recognition rates in elderly inpatients in a general hospital in Greece. Two hundred randomly selected patients, 65 years old and over, hospitalized in surgery and internal medicine departments, were assessed for cognitive decline in a period of 12 months by means of structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis-I disorders, clinical version (SCID-IV), mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and the clock drawing test (CDT). During the next 12 months the liaison calls were evaluated and the two periods were compared. During the first screening period, when psychiatric assessment was performed, 61 patients (30.5%) were diagnosed to present cognitive decline. During the second period, there were only 20 liaison calls from the same departments for patients over 65 years of age, from which 15 patients were found to present cognitive decline. Comparison between the two periods showed significant underestimation of cognitive decline. In the general hospital the cognitive decline of elderly inpatients remains still under-recognized.