Soares Walter Barbalho, Silvestre Ingrid Tinôco, Lima Amannda Melo de Oliveira, de Almondes Katie Moraes
Psychosocial Care Unit, Onofre Lopes University Hospital, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.
Private Practitioner, Natal, Brazil.
Front Psychiatry. 2020 Sep 15;11:577629. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.577629. eCollection 2020.
The number of people with dementia worldwide is expected to increase to approximately 1.3 billion in 2050. Almost 90% of patients diagnosed with dementia suffer from behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). BPSD causes and risk factors are multiple and complex and can be responsible for hospitalizations in long-term institutions, psychiatric hospitalizations and search for health services. Recently, the world imposition of social distance and self-isolation as the best preventive measures for the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges in the health care and management of this population, which may trigger or aggravate BPSD, and most caregivers are not prepared to address it. In face of this actual social distancing, telemedicine comes to be a tool for improving the management of these acute symptoms and mental care. In this article, we discuss and disseminate recommendations on this important alternative of assistance, especially considering the cases of BPSD. In this context of a pandemic, even patients with BPSD and caregivers require more frequent and updated guidance, considering the difficult context to social distance. Telemedicine can reduce the risk for the development of negative outcomes in mental health precipitated by the reduction of social contact and less access to health services, improving dementia symptom management, mainly BPSD.
预计到2050年，全球痴呆症患者人数将增至约13亿。几乎90%被诊断为痴呆症的患者患有痴呆症行为和心理症状（BPSD）。BPSD的病因和风险因素多种多样且复杂，可导致长期机构住院、精神病住院以及寻求医疗服务。最近，作为应对新冠疫情的最佳预防措施，全球实行社交距离和自我隔离，给这一人群的医疗保健和管理带来了挑战，这可能引发或加重BPSD，而大多数护理人员并未做好应对准备。面对这种实际的社交距离，远程医疗成为改善这些急性症状管理和心理护理的一种工具。在本文中，我们讨论并传播关于这一重要援助方式的建议，尤其考虑到BPSD的情况。在疫情背景下，考虑到社交距离的艰难处境，即使是患有BPSD的患者和护理人员也需要更频繁和最新的指导。远程医疗可以降低因社交接触减少和获得医疗服务机会减少而引发的心理健康负面结果的风险，改善痴呆症症状管理，主要是BPSD的管理。
