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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Life events and cognition in dementia | | Author(s) | M Orrell, P Bebbington |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 2, no 1, February 1998 |
| Pages | pp 53-59 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Cognitive processes ; Stress ; Admission [hospitals]. |
| Annotation | Stresses such as relocation and life events can lead to deterioration in dementia. However, it is not known how the severity of dementia influences the occurrence or impact of such stress. This study investigated the relationship between severity of dementia, life events in the preceding 6 months, and hospital admission. Seventy older patients with senile dementia admitted to a geriatric psychiatry unit were compared with 50 dementia sufferers in the community. In general, mild dementia sufferers tended to have a higher frequency of severe threat independent life events. Life events appeared to increase the relative risk of admission for people with less severe dementia, but only when the relatives' accounts of cognitive impairment were used rather than than Geriatric Mental State Schedule (GMSS) rated cognitive impairment. Logistic regression suggested that sensitivity to the effects of threatening life events may be inversely related to the severity of cognitive deficit. Physicians should be aware that dementia sufferers may be particularly sensitive to the effects of psychosocial stress. |
| Accession Number | CPA-980409408 A |
| Classmark | EA: DA: QNH: LD:QKH |
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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