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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Severe and persistent regressive behaviour in three elderly subjects without cognitive decline | | Author(s) | W Padoani, D De Leo |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 15, no 1, January 2000 |
| Pages | pp 70-74 |
| Keywords | Behaviour disorders ; Cognitive impairment ; Mental health [elderly] ; Case studies ; Italy. |
| Annotation | The appearance of regressive behaviours in older people is relatively common. Among these regressive attitudes, there is a relatively high frequency of situations which mimic dementia in the absence of demonstrable organic alterations that justify the presence of a neurodegenerative profile. These generally stem from a primary psychiatric disorder and are referred to as "pseudodementia". All these conditions - which are generally accompanied by a marked increase in dependency on the environment - are distinguished by the presence of cognitive impairment and behavioural traits typical of dementia, but which are fully reversible on treatment of the primary psychiatric disorder. The authors describe three cases, characterised by their striking discrepancy between clinical profile, with pronounced behavioural alterations similar to dementia-related conduct disorders, culminating in almost complete dependency on the environment, and almost stably intact cognitive performance (assessed through the MMSE - Mini-Mental State Examination), over a mean observation period of approximately five years. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000419010 A |
| Classmark | EP: E4: D: 69P: 76V |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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