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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Living in squalor
— neuropsychological function, emotional processing and squalor perception in patients found living in squalor | | Author(s) | Carol Gregory, Graeme Halliday, John Hodges, John Snowdon |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 23, no 5, June 2011 |
| Pages | pp 724-731 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/ipg |
| Keywords | Self care capacity ; Neglect [care] ; Cognitive processes ; Cognitive impairment. |
| Annotation | People who live in severe domestic squalour have a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses, but these may have a common neural basis involving frontal systems. This study investigated frontal executive function, theory of mind, emotional processing including disgust, and appreciation of squalour in older adults found to be living in squalour. Six patients referred to an old age psychiatry service underwent a battery of neuropsychological tests, assessment of living conditions and awareness of self and others' squalour. All six patients showed impairment in frontal executive function, typically accompanied by amnesic deficits. Theory of mind and emotional processing were surprisingly preserved. While five of the patients could recognise severely unclean or cluttered living conditions in newspaper photographs, more than half did not appreciate that their own living conditions were squalid. Deficits in frontal executive function appear important in the genesis of squalour although functions linked to orbito-frontal ability appear preserved. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-110913004 A |
| Classmark | CA: QNR: DA: E4 |
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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