Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine
Open Access

Review Article

Initiating Tube Feeding in the Demented Elderly: Motivation for Change

Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston Medical Center, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Joshua Minsky
Department of Health Law
Bioethics & Human Rights
Boston University School of Public Health
Boston Medical Center, USA
E-mail: jminsky@bu.edu

Received date: June 24, 2013; Accepted date: July 26, 2013; Published date: July 31, 2013

Citation: Freiman M, Minsky J, Grodin MA (2013) Initiating Tube Feeding in the Demented Elderly: Motivation for Change. J Palliative Care Med 3:153. doi: 10.4172/2165-7386.1000153

Copyright: © 2013 Freiman M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

While the medical literature does not support the placement of feeding tubes in the demented elderly it remains a very common practice. Through an analysis of medical evidence as well as the decision-making processes surrounding the placement of feeding tubes we hope to further clarify the complexity involved in the decision to perform this procedure and why, despite the evidence, it still happens on a regular basis. Furthermore, through an analysis of theories of change we will analyze how frame-shifts in medicine occur and put forward suggestions so that feeding tube placement is not performed unnecessarily in patients with severe dementia.

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