Diagnosis of Aminoff Suffering Syndrome in Advanced Alzheimer’s Disease and End-of-Life: First 10 Years | Chapter 4 | Disease and Health: Research Developments Vol. 3

The life of patients with end-stage dementia is filled with grief, secretion and stench, suppuration and wounds, crying, screaming or silent pain. This appears to be the natural and essential path of end-stage disease and aging. Its diagnosis could reduce the suffering of patients at the end of life by adequate medical and nursing care. The MSSE is the first objective clinical tool for the evaluation of suffering levels in advanced dementia. The Aminoff Suffering Syndrome in advanced Alzheimer's disease and end-of-life is characterized by a high Mini Suffering State Examination (MSSE) scale score, less than 6 months of survival, irreversible and intractable aggravation of suffering and actively dying medical condition until demise. The Aminoff Suffering Syndrome was first defined by us, presented and published 10 years ago at the 10th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (Madrid, 2007). Its diagnosis in end-of-life was performed by measuring the suffering level of patients by evaluating the Mini Suffering State Examination (MSSE) scale score. A high MSSE scale score with a range of 7 - 10 indicates a high level of suffering and reflects the severity of the medical condition in advanced dementia. The treatment of patients with Aminoff Suffering Syndrome at the end of life is a great challenge to medical and nursing personnel. The diagnosis of Aminoff Suffering Syndrome opens new horizons in the approach to anguish at end-of-life and provides a novel method for identifying advanced Alzheimer’s disease patients who require immediate palliative treatment. Looking ahead, the authors suggest that all medical researchers involved in geriatric care perform experimental prospective studies in their respective clinical settings.

 

Author (s) Details

 

Bechor Zvi Aminoff
The Minerva Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of End-of-Life, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel and Geriatric Division, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.

 

Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/dhrd/v3/3743

Studies on Beliefs, Values and Morals: The Philosophical Underpinnings of Dysthanasia | Chapter 8 | New Horizons in Education and Social Studies Vol. 6

 Though abstract principles are deeply embedded in the sub-consciousness of every adult human, beliefs, values, and morals constitute a moral structure whose implementation oversees every activity in our daily lives. In medical practise, ethical dilemmas are associated with end-of-life procedures, care, and prognosis, which are defined in accordance with individual or collective beliefs and values. Dysthanasia, from Greek, means making death impossible, and it is an ethical dilemma with essential implications at the moment. Given that death itself has two moments, the death process and the time of death, dysthanasia is the excessive prolongation of the death process with the aid of technological devices that allow procedures to sustain life. Although it is through technical developments that the moment of death can be postponed, it is the ideals and values that are profoundly rooted in the physicians' subconscious that are responsible for the mindset of ethical dilemmas at the end of life. Beliefs and values, when included in fields such as information phenomenology, technology dialectics, conflicts of values, existentialism and metaphysics, can somehow explain this present, evolving, and compelling question. Beliefs and beliefs are an individual's abstract notions. Because of its wide acceptance, ideals and principles become the foundation of every area that frames cultures as they transcend the limits of self and are enfolded by society.

Author(s) Details

J. Filipe Monteiro
Consultant Pneumologist (Retired), CHLN Pneumologia 1, Santa Maria University Hospital, Lisbon, Portugal.

View Book :- https://bp.bookpi.org/index.php/bpi/catalog/book/338