Kaesun Song Psy 110 Sec 6 Nov 20, 2008 Case Study of Alzheimers Dementia Alzheimers dementia is the

most common type of the degenerative brain disorder that gradually impairs the memory, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning severe enough to interfere with daily activities in people of age 65 or older. Recent study shows, in 2000, there are over 5 million American elders who are suffering from this progressive degenerative disease of brain and the number is expected to rise dramatically in the future year (Cummings, 2004). So what is Alzheimers dementia? In this paper, I will be discussing about the Alzheimers dementia based on the case study of Joseph who is suffering from the Alzheimers dementia. I will be describing the symptoms of Alzheimers Dementia that Joseph was experiencing and the possible cause of it, the difference between dementia and delirium based on DSM-IV-TR diagnosis, and lastly the different demographic characteristic of Alzheimers dementia.

In the case study of Alzheimers Dementia, the patient Joseph was clearly displaying the various common symptoms that falls into the middle stage of Alzheimers dementia. The first symptom was memory loss. He couldnt remember the names of familiar people including his grandson and his son, recent his personal history,

and familiar faces. Second, Joseph was also having trouble with the language skill, such as forgetting everyday words or terms. He was unable to say the simple word like an elbow. Third, Josephs inability to perform familiar task, such as putting coffee in the cereal, is also the sign of middle stage of Alzheimers dementia. Last but not least, Josephs inability to live independently due to his disorientation regarding time and place is another classic sign of people who are in the middle stage of Alzheimers dementia. People with middle stage of Alzheimers dementia generally have increasing dependency of others and they may need help with the basic task such as eating, dressing, grooming, and even using a toilette. Just like Joseph, millions of people with Alzheimers dementia are experiencing progressive, confusing, devastating, and fatal symptoms that have no perfect cure or cause. However, some researchers have suggested the possible factors that contribute to develop Alzheimers dementia such as abnormal death of brain cells, decreasing numbers of neural connections, and the presence of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles while other researchers argues the depression and anxiety can be the early indication of Alzheimers dementia. Delirium is also the cognitive disorder that shares some similarity with dementia such as memory loss, attention problem, language difficulty, and confusion. But Delirium is not the same as dementia. Unlike dementia, delirium has some

distinctive characteristics such as abrupt onset timing, acute, reversible, and fluctuating symptoms. In addition, the symptoms of disorientation happen early whereas disorientation happens later with dementia patients. Diagnosing delirium can be challenging, without running careful assessment, delirium can be easily mistaken with the many psychological disorders due to some of the symptoms of delirium are also present in dementia, major depressive disorders, and psychosis. This is why some psychologist disagrees that delirium should be included in the DSM-IV.

Lastly, the demographical characteristic shows that there are various factors also contributing to Alzheimers dementia such as age, gender, education, and cultures. First of all, aging poses the greatest risk factors for Alzheimers dementia especially for the elders who are 65 or older. Second, in terms of gender and risk factor for Alzheimers dementia, women are more likely to suffer from Alzheimers due to their longer life expectancy than male but without applying the life expectancy factor, generally men and women have equal risk for Alzheimers dementia. Second, the differences in education level have different prevalence rate for Alzheimers dementia. Having higher level of education could prevents individual from suffering Alzheimers dementia due to having more connection of neuron in the brain cells (Gatz et al., 2001)

while people with lower level of education may associates with higher prevalence of Alzheimers dementia. Lastly, there are some culture variations associating with Alzheimers dementia. The recent study shows, there are equal occurrence for Alzheimers dementia with various nationality. However, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans are lease likely to seek for treatment due to limited knowledge of Alzheimers disease and also the misconceptions of Alzheimers dementia as craziness or curse of ancestor. In addition, in Asian culture, there is a strong stigma of having mental disorder itself. The sense of shame usually follows with any form of mental illness preventing the individual with the mental disorder from having appropriate treatments.