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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Psychotic symptoms and physically aggressive behavior in Alzheimer's disease | | Author(s) | David W Gilley, Robert S Wilson, Laurel A Beckett |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 45, no 9, September 1997 |
| Pages | pp 1074-1079 |
| Keywords | Psychoses ; Aggression ; Dementia ; Out-patients ; Correlation ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | 270 outpatients referred for evaluation for dementia participated in this study of the presence and frequency of physically aggressive behaviour over a 52-week period. Multiple regression models were used to evaluate delusions and hallucinations, assessed at baseline, as predictors of physical aggression, controlling for demographic and clinical variables. Same household informants were interviewed at outset regarding psychotic symptoms, previous episodes of physical aggression, and demographic variables. Physically aggressive behaviour was measured using structured informant interviews at weekly intervals. 75 had one or more episodes of physical aggression during the 52 weeks. The presence of delusions significantly predicted presence and frequency of physical aggression. Of those with high rates of physical aggression, 80% had delusions. This effect was robust, even after controlling for the effects of other clinical variables. By contrast, hallucinations did not reliably predict episodes of physical aggression. In the light of the persecutory nature of most delusional ideation in Alzheimer's disease (AD), delusions may be associated with distortions in the perception of threat in common social situations. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981127204 A |
| Classmark | EL: EPB: EA: LFB: 49: 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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