Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Psychology Alzheimers Disease

Question: Discuss about thePsychologyfor Alzheimer's Disease. Answer: Introduction Alzheimer's disease is progressive neurodenerative disease. In this disease individual specifically loses memory, judgment, cognitive function and consequently physical activity. It also leads to aphasia, apraxia, agnosis and disturbance in the preparation, establishing, sequencing and abstracting. Dementia results in the prominent diminishing of social functioning and drops in the prior level of functioning. These changes are predictable and are associated with cognitive and sensorimotor changes. Alzheimer's disease generally begins after the age of 60 and its onset may happen at the age of 40. Psychological development in the children and adolescence affects in different ways like identity, emotions and relation with parents and peers. Patient with the dementia cant express feelings and emotions and these patients feel like loss of self-esteem (Prado-Jeanetal., 2010). Patients with dementia exhibit dysfunction of the motor function and this can be motor retardation or motor hyperac tivity. Sleep pattern changes are very common in elderly patients, however, it is more prevalent and predominant in the patients with dementia. In studies it has been observed that patients with dementia generally sleep in the daytime and awake at the night time (Rongve et al., 2010). There can be change in the eating pattern in the patients with dementia. These patients prefer to eat more sweet, however it has been observed that there is body weight loss in dementia due to increased metabolic rate. These all the factors affects both physical and psychological development of the patient. These physical and psychological symptoms are evident in the patient with dementia at the early stage of the disease (Monastero et al., 2009). Reisberg (1984), stated that Alzheimer's disease dementia can take individual from adolescence to the infancy. Child like behavior of the adult individual occurs mainly due to the occurrence of Alzheimers disease and this condition is very traumatic and mystifying for family members. These children like behaviors include angry burst, fright and continuous demand for attention from others. These adults should be treated like children and it is termed as infantilizing. These patients cant express their feelings verbally due to the cognitive impairment. These patients express it through pacing or screaming and it should be considered as the adaptive development in the patient. Caretaking of such individuals is very frustrating for the family members and caretakers. Caregivers generally associated with agitation, insomnia and impaired daily activities. In studies, it has been established that there is decline on the acquisition of the routine activities like bathing and dressing in the g rowing children. This decline in the function in almost equal to the time of acquisition of these functions in the children (Reisberg, 1985; Nolen, 1988). Cognition and social behavior in the children and elder people with cognitive development problem like dementia, is almost similar. Infant age is unstable and the same is the case with adult individual with developmental dementia. Children are more sensitive and generally they are more observant of the novel and attractive things around them. Patient with the dementia also exhibit the similar type of behavior. Similar like infant and children, dementia patients also test their actions on the surrounding environment. Children perform tasks in organized or unorganized way based on the stage of the development of the children. However, patients with cognitive impairment lost their cognitive skills and these people shift their functioning from the organized to unorganized direction. Generally it has been observed that children are les s egocentric as they progress in their age. However, dementia patients become more egocentric as there is progression of the disease condition. Imitation is the very common phenomenon observed in the children and same has been exhibited by patients with dementia. Language skill and the thought process are completely different in children as compared to the adults. However, in adults with dementia language skill and thought process almost become similar to the children (Matteson et al., 1996). Thus, it is clearly evident that impairment in the psychological development through dementia results in the reversal in the functioning and social behavior of the children. Theory: Even though there is the criticism about the Piagets theory because observations made in this theory were based on own children and way of demonstration of observation, this theory is widely acceptable for understanding the cognitive development and impairment in children. There were studies conducted which exhibited application of Piagets theory for understanding cognitive development at different stages of life (Ginsberg Opper, 1979; LaFrancois, 1982). Piagets theory is useful in the understanding of the acquirement of the thinking ability and individual with dementia exhibits reverse trend as compared to the Piagets theory. Individuals with dementia exhibit more decline in cognitive function with increase in the age. Piaget stated that patients with the dementia pass through the stage like sensorimotor and preoperational stages. Identification of the particular stage of development in the patient with dementia can be helpful in planning specific intervention for these patients. H ence, dementia affects proper development of individual. Piaget states that adolescence individual are more able to think hypothetically as compared to the children and acquiring power of the adolescence individual is highest as compared the any stage of the life. A study conducted on the individuals of the age group 10 14 years found that these teenagers can organize things more efficiently as compared to the less age group people. It reflects an adolescence individual has more cognitive ability than the children. Younger adults perform effectively in the tasks where rate of cognitive function allocation is more. In tasks like vocabulary, reasoning capability and social decision making, older participants perform effectively as compared to the younger participants. Piagets theory was developed different frameworks and tests for the assessment of cognitive and behavior development in the infants, children, and adolescents. However, fewer studies are available for the application of Piagetss theory in adults. Emery Breslau, (1987) conducted study in the adults by using Piagets frame work and tests. Authors applied five tasks for the evaluation of concrete operations and it was observed that there was significant difference between the normal adults and the adults with dementia in performing concrete operations tasks. Thornbury (1993), evaluated Piagets theory in adults with the use of Infant Psychological Development Scale and concrete operational scale. Author did little modification to the framework of the Piaget. This study confirmed the relationship between the cognitive development and Piagets observations. Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development can also be used in the identification of cognitive parameters of the patients with dementia. Current Research: Barca et al., (2016) conducted study to evaluate experience of children in their development whose parents were associated with the young-onset dementia. Data was collected by interviewing 12 female and 2 female children of parents with early onset dementia. These children expresses that there was conflict in the family during their developmental age. It was also observed that there was augmented level of stress in the children who stayed for longer time with dementia parents. These children also expressed requirement of personal centered care for such type of children. There were different tests available for the diagnosis of dementia in the individual. These tests comprise of tests of language, executive function and some measures of global cognition. These were applied in different geographical areas and on the people with different culture. It was evident from the study that these tests could not be applied uniformly in all the cultures. There should be specific dementia diagnost ic tests based on the cultural background of the person (Weissberger et al., 2013). In the research related to the dementia, it is very much required to evaluate the relation between memory impairment and memory function. It has observed in studies there is no direct relation between the memory impairment and memory function. Loss in memory function is also associated with other factors like memory type, depression and distresses about increased age (Pearman, 2014). Planning for the future requires cognitive involvement and this ability of planning changes with the increasing age of the individual. In a study, it has been observed that upto age of 60, there is normal process of planning in an individual. As the cognitive function declines after age 60, there is requirement of more level of search and cognitive function required for the future planning. Hence, it has been proved that dementia is related to the development of planning in an individual (Kstering et al., 2014). Societal Implication: It has been observed that patients residing in the society are with fewer symptoms of dementia as compared to the patients residing in the hospitals (Frisoni et al., 1999). Intervention of the dementia mainly comprises of emotional support and therapeutic intervention. Therapeutic intervention comprises of drug treatment and rehabilitation. Emotional interventions include increasing awareness of the responsible factors for the stress due to dementia, helping individual for the development of adaptive process to cope with the discomfort and giving moral boost for the psychological and emotional well-being of the person. It has been observed that persons identity can be lost due to dementia. This is due to loss of working ability or skills and social isolation of the individual. In such scenario emotional and psychological intervention is proved to be useful. Psychological therapy is useful in the improving emotional stability of the individual (Cheston Bender, 1999). Person centered counseling keeps patient at the center of the process. In this person centered approach there should be good communication between the patient and nurse or physician and patient should be more socially exposed. In recent times person centered approach proved to be useful for the treatment of dementia (Feltham Horton, 2000). Information and education to the patients of dementia is required in the form of information about dementia, treatment options for dementia, getting help from the physician, information about the dementia organizations, legal issues about dementia. Prospective: Correct identification of the clinical symptoms and proper implementation of the intervention is very much required for dementia patients. Because there is no established model for the clinical diagnosis of the dementia patients and moreover, symptoms of dementia overlap with other psychological conditions. Pathogenesis of these symptoms is not well understood and current observations from the research, it has been established that pathogenesis is multifactorial. Specific interventions should be implemented based on the identified mechanisms of causes and symptoms of the diseases. Currently there is implementation of combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment for the patient with dementia. However, there should be advancement in the more non-pharmacological treatment for dementia which would be safer as compared to the pharmacological treatments. In terms of pharmacological treatments drug should be developed which would be more effective, safer and specific to the particular symptom (Cerejeira, et al., 2012). Most of the studies related to the cognitive development studies were conducted in small number of population. If these studies of cognitive development theory would have been conducted in large population, people incorporating diverse cultures, different socioeconomic classes and people from the different geographical areas, there would have been more understanding on the subjects. It would have been helpful in the development of globally accepted cognitive development theories. Future directions of research should be in the direction of conducting studies to get broader outcome. Summary: In this essay , research question discussed is dementia related to development from adolescence to late adulthood. Initially, in this essay terminologies related to the dementia and development in the human being are discussed. It is evident that, in dementia there is memory loss and consequently loss of the physical activity in the individual. This loss in the memory leads to the abnormal characters in the individual which affects physical, psychological and social wellbeing of the individual. These changes are predictable in the individual through observations, however, these changes in the individual are confounding with the other psychological issues. Hence, it would be difficult to make correct diagnosis of dementia. These dementia patients couldnt be able to express their feelings verbally in accurate way, hence they should develop adaptive processes which can be understand by caretakers. Dementia prevents psychological development of the patient and patients overall behavior returns to the level of child behavior. This condition of the patient would be very disturbing for the care taker. Dementia patients all the physical and behavioral activities are very similar to the children like imitation, egocentric behavior, and language skills. Moreover, these patients perform work in more unorganized way as compared to the children. Piagets theory can be effectively applied in the study of developmental phycology in dementia patients. Originally Piagets theory was developed for the developmental analysis of the children and adolescence, however few researchers applied Piagets theory for the evaluation of the psychological assessment of dementia in adults. Few of the researchers utilized different frameworks and tasks in the original form, however few researchers applied these frameworks and tasks with slight modifications. Application of Piagets theory proved helpful in the finding difference between the normal adult individuals and dementia patients. In his theory Piaget also mentioned about the different stages like sensorimotor and preoperational stages. These dementia patients pass through these stages and it would be feasible to implement specific intervention for the specific stage of the dementia disease in particular individual. Trend of acquisition of new skills is completely opposite in Piagets theory and dementia patients. In dementia patients acquisition of new skills decreases with age while according to Piagets theory acquisition of new skills increases with age. In recent times, studies were conducted to evaluate dementia from different perspectives. Study was conducted to understand the experience of children whose parents were with dementia and it was observed that these children were associated with high level of stress due to their parents. Study was also conducted to evaluate effectiveness of diagnostic techniques in dementia. From this it was concluded that, there is the requirement of evaluation of diagnostic techniques in people with different cultures to get global acceptability of the diagnostic technique. Study was also conducted to evaluate relationship between memory impairment and memory function. Form this study, it is evident that along with memory impairment other psychological factors are also responsible for loss of memory function. Study conducted on the evaluation of requirement of cognitive ability in future planning, it is evident that after certain age there is requirement of high level research and cognitive ability for future planning. Social involvement of the dementia patient is very much essential for the improvement in the disease. There is the availability of emotional, psychological and therapeutic interventions for management of dementia. Emotional and psychological interventions are proved to be more effective for the management of the dementia because in these interventions there is incorporation of person centered care. Future directions for research in dementia and psychological development include correct identification of the symptoms, development of specific intervention for the particular symptom, identification of mechanism behind different causes and symptoms of the disease. More preference should be given to the development of non-pharmacological interventions. Most importantly, these cognitive development studies in dementia should be carried with incorporation of large number of participants and with people from diverse culture and geographical areas. References: Barca, M.L, Thorsen, K., Engedal, K., Haugen, P.K, Johannessen A. (2014). Nobody asked me how I felt: experiences of adult children of persons with young-onset dementia. International Psychogeriatric, 26(12), 1935-44. Cerejeira, J., Lagarto, L., Mukaetova-Ladinska, E. B. (2012). Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia. Frontiers in Neurology, 3, 73. PMCID: PMC3345875. Cheston, R., Bender, M. (1999). 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