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‘Acopia’ is a pejorative term describing the older patient who is ‘unable to cope’. This study assessed the characteristics of patients presenting with ‘acopia’ to a district general hospital in the United Kingdom. Nearly half of ‘acopia’ patients presented with geriatric syndromes such as falls and confusion. Redefining ‘acopia’ as an all-encompassing term to describe the frail older patient with multiple medical problems may help identify patients in need of urgent specialist geriatric input.
Merchant et al. (2008) studied this question.