Ejona SHASKA, Idlir KUKA, Entela ISUF, Francesk MULITA
Medical Science and Discovery - 2026;13(9):271-283
Background and Objective: To describe the demographic characteristics, documented dementia subtypes, and psychiatric, neurological, and medical comorbidities among patients with dementia treated in a psychiatric hospital in Albania. Materials and Methods: This retrospective descriptive chart review included 122 patients with documented dementia who were hospitalized at the "Ali Mihali" Psychiatric Hospital in Vlorë, Albania, between January 2015 and December 2025. Dementia classification was based on diagnoses recorded in the medical records and was supported, where available, by clinical assessment, cognitive testing with the Mini-Mental State Examination and/or Montreal Cognitive Assessment, neurological evaluation, neuroimaging, and laboratory investigations. Demographic characteristics, dementia subtypes, and documented psychiatric, neurological, and medical comorbidities were extracted from the available records. Categorical data were summarized as frequencies and percentages. No inferential statistical analyses were performed. Results: Of the 122 patients, 79 (64.8%) were male and 87 (71.3%) lived in urban areas. Patients aged 51-80 years constituted 73.8% of the cohort. Primary neurodegenerative dementia was documented in 75 patients (61.5%), including Alzheimer's disease in 71 (58.2%) and Parkinson's disease dementia in 4 (3.3%). Vascular dementia was recorded in 10 patients (8.2%), while secondary dementias accounted for 37 cases (30.3%); alcohol-related dementia (13.1%) and substance-related dementia (9.0%) were the most frequent secondary categories. Among 91 patients with available psychiatric and neurological comorbidity data, psychosis (33.0%), personality disorders (23.1%), depression (15.4%), and insomnia (14.3%) were most frequently documented. Medical comorbidity data were available for 95 patients; hypertension was recorded in 42.1%, Dyslipidaemia in 36.8%, and diabetes mellitus in 21.1%. Conclusion: Alzheimer's disease was the most frequently documented dementia subtype in this psychiatric hospital cohort, while secondary dementias, particularly alcohol- and substance-related forms, constituted a substantial proportion of cases. Psychiatric, neurological, and cardiometabolic comorbidities were also frequently documented. The findings characterize the clinical complexity of patients with dementia treated in a specialized psychiatric setting and support comprehensive, individualized, and multidisciplinary assessment and care. Given the retrospective, single-centre, descriptive design, these findings should not be interpreted as estimates of population prevalence or as evidence of causal or statistical associations.
