DEMENTIA

DEMENTIA DEMENTIADementia diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), have a large impact on the everyday life of persons affected, their spouses, and the staff involved in their daily living (Borell, 1992). For example, the cognitive dysfunctions resulting from dementia diseases interfere largely with the performance of most activities of daily living (ADL) (BÂ ¤ckman, 1992). Consequently, an urgent need exists to develop programs supporting everyday occupation for persons with dementia. Occupational therapy can help persons with a dementia disease to regain and retain meaningful life skills (Rogers, 1986). Yet few such programs are documented; and few attempts have been made to evaluate the effects of such programs on the performance of ADL among individuals exhibiting dementia. Furthermore, it is unclear what the focus of such programs should be. Should the intervention seek to improve the cognitive constituents underlying performance of ADL (e.g., memory), or should it focus on environme ntal and social conditions supporting task performance (Fisher, 1992)?Several attempts have been made to enhance cognitive functions, like memory, in persons with dementia diseases (BÂ ¤ckman, 1990).English: Histopathogic image of senile plaques see...Throughout these stages a specific sequence of cognitive deterioration is observed (Lezak, 1993). The mild stage begins with memory, attention, speed dependent activities, and abstract reasoning dysfunction. Also mild language impairments begin to surface. In the moderate stage, language deficits such as aphasia and apraxia become prominent. Dysfluency, paraphasias, and bizzare word combinations are common midstage speech defects. In the severe stage the patient is gradually reduced to a vegetative state. Speech becomes nonfluent, repetitive, and largely non-communicative. Auditory comprehension is exceedingly limited, with many patients displaying partial or complete mutism. Late in the course of the disease many neuropsychological f unctions can no longer be measured. Also primitive reflexes such as grasp and suck emerge. Death usually results from a disease such as pneumonia which overwhelms the limited vegetative functions of the patient.Dementia is commonly differentiated along two dimensions: age and cortical level. The first dimension,