Difficulties incommunication with apatient with Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease involves a progressive disintegration of the brain in the clinical picture of dementia. In addition to explicit memory loss, problems with thinking, language functions, emotional life, logical reasoning. As the disease progresses the patient is completely lost in the environmen...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Medical Communications Sp. z o.o.
2012-03-01
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| Series: | Psychiatria i Psychologia Kliniczna |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.psychiatria.com.pl/index.php/wydawnictwa/2012-vol-12-no-1/difficulties-in-communication-with-a-patient-with-alzheimer-s-disease?aid=411 |
| Summary: | Alzheimer’s disease involves a progressive disintegration of the brain in the clinical picture of dementia. In addition
to explicit memory loss, problems with thinking, language functions, emotional life, logical reasoning. As the disease
progresses the patient is completely lost in the environment and can not use speech. As a result, there are problems
in communicating with the environment. The aim of this study was to create a profile of language impairment in sub‑
sequent stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The research tool was a questionnaire anABC designed by the author. The sur‑
vey anABC was designed and named to evaluate the efficiency of language and communication. To assess the level
of cognitive impairment scale was used Mini‑Mental State Examination (MMSE). The study group comprised 32
patients with Alzheimer’s disease and 32 caregivers. Patients in the first stage of the disease have the greatest difficul‑
ties in terms of pragmatics, content and semantics – the meaning of individual words. The greatest difficulty for
patients in the second stage of the disease was the understanding and interpretation of expression depending on the
context, then the content and meaning of individual words. There was also minor difficulties with the syntax. In the
third stage of the disease, the greatest difficulty equally represented: pragmatics, and semantics of the contents, a somewhat smaller barrier was the syntax, but there were also phonetic difficulties. The largest group of patients with
Alzheimer’s disease were patients with significant impairment in interpersonal communication. There is an urgent
need to educate caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease in the field of communications. |
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| ISSN: | 1644-6313 2451-0645 |