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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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The evolution of psychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease
— a natural history study | | Author(s) | Barbara C Jost, George T Grossberg |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 44, no 9, September 1996 |
| Pages | pp 1078-1081 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Psychoses ; Symptoms ; Diagnosis ; Clinical surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The presence of psychiatric symptoms (e.g. anxiety, wandering, agitation) was documented and the time of onset relative to diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) was measured in 100 randomly selected autopsy-confirmed AD patients. Irritability, agitation and aggression were documented in 81% of patients some 10 months after diagnosis. 72% experienced depression, changes in mood, social withdrawal, and suicidal ideation more than 2 years before diagnosis. Hallucinations, paranoia, accusatory behaviour, and delusions were documented around the time of diagnosis (0.1 months after) in 45% of patients. Patients with early onset disease, more years of formal education, and male gender experienced psychiatric symptoms later, relative to diagnosis, than their counterparts. Thus, psychiatric manifestations of depression may herald a diagnosis of AD, on the basis of results for this cohort. Psychotic symptoms were manifest at about the time of diagnosis, perhaps even prompting diagnosis, whereas agitative symptoms occurred in the first year after diagnosis. The evolution of psychiatric symptoms in this cohort differed according to age at onset of disease, years of formal education, and gender. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-970812208 A |
| Classmark | EA: EL: CT: LK7: 3G: 7T |
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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