PSY 3301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Dementia, Language Disorder, Charlotte Selver

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 3301
• Professor: Andra Smith

Document Summary

Significant loss of intellectual abilities such as memory capacity, severe enough to interfere with social or occupational functioning. Criteria for the diagnosis of dementia include impairment of attention, orientation, memory, judgment, language, motor and spatial skills, and function. By definition, dementia is not due to major depression or schizophrenia. Korsakoff"s syndrome (thiamine deficiency due to alcoholism) Shares characteristics with alzheimer"s disease (confusion, memory and attentional impairment) and parkinson"s disease (rigid muscles, slowed movement and tremors). Most striking symptom is visual hallucinations, which can be one of the first symptoms. Hallucinations may range from abstract shapes or colors to conversations with deceased loved ones. Treatments include cholinesterase inhibitors (as in ad); medications for pd; and antipsychotics. Non-pharmacologic approaches should thus be tried first. Lewy bodies: deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein. Also present in other dementias (alzheimer"s, parkinson"s), making diagnosis difficult.