Key points from article :
Dementia (including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease) more accurately defined as fatal brain failure: a terminal disease, like cancer, that physically kills patients, not simply a mental ailment that accompanies older age.
323 nursing-home residents with advanced dementia studied for 18 months.
Only seven patients had a major event during the final three months of life
Death due to a syndrome of symptoms and complications (eating, pneumonia, breathing, pain, fever) caused by brain failure.
Should recognize and treat advanced dementia as a terminal illness requiring palliative care.
The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
