Download Alzheimer`s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease
Stephanie Aparicio
May 4, 2011
Period 5
Definition:
• The term senile is sometimes mistakenly used to
refer t the disorder, or more generally to the
process of growing old.
• Also, when a person starts to losing they’re
memory and there is a series of stages.
• Alzheimer’s is also a part of Dementia.
Diagnosis:
• A diagnosos of Alzheimers Disease can be made
only in an autopsy by studying microscopic
changes in brain tissue.
• In later stages of the disease, there are diagnostic
guidelines that can be applied and are claimed to
have 85 to 90 percent accuracy.
Associated Features:
• Stages Of Alzheimer’s:
1. Forgetfulness
2. Early Confusional
3. Late Confusional
4. Early Dementia
5. Middle Dementia
6. Late Dementia
• Multiple cognitive deficits
• Language disturbance
• Impaired activity to carry out motor abilities.
• Failure to recognize or identify objects.
Associated Features:
• DSM-IV-TR:
• A. The development of multiple cognitive deficits manifested by both
(1) memory impairment (impaired ability to learn new information or to recall
previously learned information)
(2) one (or more) of the following cognitive disturbances:
(a) aphasia (language disturbance)
(b) apraxia (impaired ability to carry out motor activities despite intact motor
function)
(c) agnosia (failure to recognize or identify objects despite sensory function)
(d) disturbance in executive functioning (i.e., planning, organizing,
sequencing, abstracting)
B. The cognitive deficits in Criteria Al and A2 each cause significant impairment in
social or occupational functioning and represent a significant decline from a
previous level of functioning.
C. The course is characterized by gradual onset and continuing cognitive decline.
Associated Features:
• D. The cognitive deficits in Criteria Al and A2 are not due to any of following:
(1) other central nervous system conditions that cause progressive deficits in
memory and cognition (e.g., cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson's disease,
Huntington's disease, subdural hematoma, normal-pressure hydrocephalus,
brain tumor)
(2) systemic conditions that are known to cause dementia (e.g.,
hypothyroidism, vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency, niacin deficiency,
hypercalcemia, neurosyphilis, HIV infection)
(3) substance-induced conditionsE. The deficits do not occur exclusively
during the course of a deliriumF. The disturbance is not better accounted for by
another Axis I disorder (e.g., Major Depressive Disorder, Schizophrenia).
Etiology:
• Begins many sentences, usually with an anxious,
repetitive query, but they remain unfinished, the
want unexpressed.
• Alzheimer was unable to explain this process of
deterioration until after the woman died, when an
autopsy revealed that most of the tissue in this
women’s cerebral cortex had degenerated.
• Subtypes of Alzheimer’s are: delirium, delusions,
depressed mood, uncomplicated (for cases in which
none of these other characteristics apply.)
Prevalence:
• Widely but inaccurately reported in the popular
press as 4 million amounting to those over the age
of 85.
• The analysis of data from the United States, and
the United States Mortality Records, place the
prevalence from 1.7 to 1.9 million cases which is
close to 5 to 7 percent of the over 65 population.
• Prevalence arises among those over 85 which is
about 29 percent.
Treatment:
• Two medications that can be used in the treatment
for Alzheimer’s Disease are: Tacrine and Aricept.
• Tacrine can produce toxic effects in the liver, and
the required doses are too much for some people.
• Aricept is effective as Tacrine in targeting cognitive
symptoms, although it has gastrointestinal side
effects related to the effects of
acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. The required dose is
lower, and it doesn’t interfere with liver function.
Prognosis:
• There I no cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, it
progresses or gets worse over time.
• Most people can survive years with the disease.
Some die between 8 to 10 years of the disease, and
some live up to 25 years.
References:
• Halgin, R.P., & Whitbourne, S.K. (2005). Abnormal
psychology: clinical perspectives on
psychology disorders. New York, NY: McGraw
Hill.
• Myers, D.G. (2011). Myers psychology for AP. New
York, NY: Worth publishers.
• Robinson, L., & Saisan, J., Segal, J., (2011).
Alzheimer’s disease: signs, symptoms, and
stages of alzheimer’s disease. Retrieved from:
http://www.helpguide.org/elder/alzheimers_dis
ease_symptoms_stages.htm
References:
• Reisberg, B. (n.d.). Stages of alzheimer’s. Retrieved
from: http://www.alzinfo.org/clinical-stages-ofalzheimers
• Croft, H. (2009). Alzheimer’s disease: prognosis
and complications. Retrieved from:
http://www.healthyplace.com/alzheimers/
main/alzheimers-disease-prognosis-andcomplications/menu-id-56/