Chris Gastmans

Detection of delirium by bedside nurses using the confusion assessment method

A prospective, descriptive study was used to assess the diagnostic validity of the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) administered at the bedside by nurses in daily practice. Two different scoring methods of the CAM (the specific (SPEC) and sensitive (SENS) methods) were compared with a criterion standard (CAM completed by trained research nurses). During a 5‐month period, all patients consecutively admitted to an acute geriatric ward of the University Hospitals of Leuven (Belgium) were enrolled in the study. The 258 elderly inpatients who were included underwent 641 paired but independent ratings of delirium by bedside and trained research nurses.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide : lessons from Belgium

Herman Nys / A discussion of the legal rules on euthanasia in Belgium briefly compared with the rules in Luxembourg and the Netherlands -- Etienne Montero / The Belgian experience of euthanasia since its legal implementation in 2002 -- Daniel P. Sulmasy / Ethics and the psychiatric dimensions of physician assisted suicide : a view from the United States -- Paul Vanden Berghe, Arsene Mullie, Marc Desmet, and Gert Huysmans / Assisted dying : the current situation in Flanders : euthanasia embedded in palliative care -- Sigrid Sterckx and Kasper Raus / The practice of continuous sedation at the end of life in Belgium : how does it compare to UK practice, and is it being used as a form of euthanasia? -- Benoit Beuselinck / 2002-2016 : fourteen years of euthanasia in Belgium : first-line observations by an oncologist -- Trevor Stammers / A last act of grace? organ donation and euthanasia in Belgium -- Kevin Fitzpatrick and David Albert Jones / A life worth living? disabled people and euthanasia in Belgium -- Joris Vandenberghe / Euthanasia in patients with intolerable suffering due to an irremediable psychiatric illness : a psychiatric perspective -- Stefaan Van Gool and Jan De Lepeleire / Euthanasia in children : keep asking the right questions -- Raphael Cohen-Almagor / Euthanizing people who are tired of life -- Chris Gastmans / Euthanasia in persons with severe dementia -- Calum MacKellar / Some possible consequences arising from the normalisation of euthanasia in Belgium -- David Albert Jones / Euthanasia and assisted suicide in Belgium : bringing an end to interminable discussion -- Willem Lemmens / Psychiatric patients and the culture of euthanasia in Belgium.