Alzheimer's and Dementia

    Cards (22)

    • There are 55 million people living with dementia around the globe
    • Alzheimer's: A specific disease and the most common cause of dementia. It is a progressive brain disorder characterised by the degeneration of brain cells, leading to cognitive decline.
    • Dementia: An umbrella term for a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking, and social abilities severely enough to interfere with daily life. It is not a specific disease but a general term for conditions that cause cognitive impairment
    • Symptoms of dementia are: decreased attention spam, mood swings, exhaustion.
    • There is no cure for dementia, we can only slow the process.
    • Prof. Bruno diagnoses dementia through a 15 word list...
      • Normal people should recall at least any 4 words from the beginning.
      • People who are more likely to have dementia recall words from the middle.
    • To stimulate the mind people with dementia do activities related to memory such as: Listening to old music, looking at old photographs or using old skills.
    • In Seattle there are 400 residents of Providence Mount St Vincent Residential Home ("The Mount") that meet up with 150 kindergarten children 5 days p/w. Staff find that the residents contribute to playing games and storytelling.
    • Hogewey is known as the dementia village
    • In hogewey everyone is 80+ years old. The residence there live normal lives.
    • Hogewey is designed to resemble different backgrounds (e.g modern, farm, ect) to help the dementia patients stay active as they move around parts familiar to them.
    • Nurses in Hogewey play along to dementia patient delusions to avoid causing distress.
    • Hogewey is a type of VALIDATION THERAPY.
    • VALIDATION THERAPY involves accepting what people say even if it isn’t true.
    • Dementia involves loss of memory but sufferers don’t lose all their memories (events from in their past). Tulving’s ideas about episodic LTM apply to this. Recent EPISODIC MEMORIES are lost first; Sufferers often keep memories from their youth or childhood right to the end
    • Schmolck et al’s study (semantic LTM) applies to this. He found SEMANTIC LTM is stored in a different part of the brain. SCHEMAS from Reconstructive Memory explains why dementia may be lifted when patients hear old songs, play childhood games or visit familiar-looking places.
    • PROCEDURAL MEMORY is also affected separately. It explains the confusion sufferers experience because they are suddenly unable to do tasks they have taken for granted (e.g. read, tell the time or use a phone.)
    • DISPLACEMENT THEORY applies Prof. Bruno’s test:
      Primacy effect = the early items in a list are well-rehearsed and go into LTM, so they're easier to recall.
      Middle items are displaced because there is no time to rehearse them.
    • Displacement occurs according to MSM where STM has a maximum capacity of 9 items. A person not experiencing displacement means they're not rehearsing primary items. Prof, Bruno calls this 'pathological' (not natural/healthy memory loss).
    • RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY can be applied to the dementia village at Hogewey. Each of the different parts of the village (cultural, urban, etc) corresponds to a different set of schemas. Someone who grew up in a wealthy home will have SCHEMAS corresponding to the high class part of Hogewey and find it easier to remember things like episodes and procedures.
    • Tulving’s ideas of EPISODIC AND SEMANTIC LTM also apply to Hogewey. Because recent EPISODIC MEMORY is lost, sufferers often “live in the past” and find their present situation distressing. Staff do not contradict the residents but “go with” their beliefs and behaviour instead.
    • Validation Therapy like this is controversial. Some critics say that psychologists have an ethical duty not to deceive people. Hogewey is a giant deception designed to put dementia sufferers at ease.