|
Example: Please identify the symptoms of dementia Mrs. Adonis presents with.
• Anosognosia: does not recognize she has cognitive problems and wants
to go home to her village.
• Amnesia: forgets she has eaten, doesn’t recognize her surroundings.
• Aphasia: loss of her second language English, difficulty having a simple
conversation in Greek.
• Attentional Deficit: wanders away from the music she enjoys.
• Agnosia: misidentifies her daughter as her mother.
• Apathy: states she is hungry but sits at the table until someone gets her
started.
• Apraxia: may not remember how to use the spoon to feed herself; no
longer able to use a fork and knife.
• Altered Perceptions: auditory misperception of the loud noise in the dining
room.
Case Study- Mrs Adonis
Mrs. Adonis is a new resident on your unit.
She has had a diagnosis
of Alzheimer Disease for over 6 years. She speaks only her native
language now, but staff who speak Greek tell you it is difficult to have
even a simple conversation with her in Greek.
She often motions to staff that she is hungry even though she has
just eaten her meal.
Her family has arranged for CDs of Greek music
to be available for staff to play for Mrs. Adonis, but she wanders away
from the lounge or her room where it is being played, even though
she initially appears to enjoy it.
Mrs. Adonis’ daughter approaches you today very distressed that her
mother is calling her “Mother”, insisting she take her home to her
village.
At lunch, the daughter also comments that her mother says
she is hungry; however she will sit in front of her meal until someone
picks up her spoon, places it in her hand properly and helps her start
eating.
Later in the day, a tray of glasses is accidentally dropped on the floor,
making a loud noise, and Mrs. A. quickly crawls under the table. Her
daughter wonders if her mother thought it was a bomb like she had
experienced during WWll.
__________________________________________________________________________
Found this resources from 2009. https://www.champlainhealthline.ca/healthlibrary_docs/DementiaPrimer.pdf
Amnesia– loss of memory (sensory memory, long-term memory, short-term memory,
habitual memory)
• The person may forget and not remember later, especially things that happened
more recently
• Last thing learned is first thing lost
• Will ask/repeat same questions/ comments
Example: Mr Jessup accuses his roommate of stealing his glasses, when Joe himself had placed the glasses in the drawer of his night table the day before.
***************************************************************************
Agnosia - loss of recognition
• Loss of recognition crosses all senses (smell, taste, vision, touch and hearing) -
the person has trouble understanding the meaning of what is seen, heard,
smelled, touched, and tasted
• The person may not recognize familiar faces – the person losses recognition of
people in the order that they last came into his/her life
Example: Mrs Agnew becomes frightened when she sees her reflection in the mirror, thinking an old lady is staring back at her.
***************************************************************************
Apraxia – loss of purposeful movement :
Example: Miss Rogers is seen wearing her blouse over her pajama top at
breakfast.
• The person loses the ability to plan, sequence and carry out the steps of
particular tasks even though the person is physically capable of performing the
activity
• Every task has an order and the person loses the ability to organize the
sequence
• Often a combination of not recognizing items and how to use them
*****************************************************************************
Apathy – loss of initiation
Anosognosia - no knowledge of the disease - meaning the person is unaware of the
changes caused by the disease process.
Aphasia - loss of language
Altered perceptions - loss of perceptual acuteness:
• Changes in perception may cause a resident to misjudge depth. For example,
he/she may feel like the bathtub has no bottom or those they are being lowered into
a deep pool.
|