Beyond memory impairment: cognitive changes in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

In addition to memory impairment, deficits in other cognitive processes are common in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The diagnosis of AD does not consider the relative prevalence of deficits in cognitive areas other than memory. We report on the prevalence of aphasia, apraxia, and other cognitive changes in individuals from a large representative sample of elderly Canadians. The proportion of these symptoms and the relevant neuropsychological test performance were compared in a group of 749 people over 65 years in age with AD and a control group of 563 people without cognitive impairment. Agnosia was less common in both groups than were deficits in complex visuomotor tasks, abstract thinking, aphasia, and constructional defects. The occurrence of all symptoms increased, and levels of performance on relevant neuropsychological tests decreased, with severity of Alzheimer disease. The tests did not, however, distinguish between possible and probable AD. Both these diagnostic groups showed similar levels of performance, which suggests that this distinction is not clinically meaningful.

APP transgenic mice for modelling behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD)

“…In general, memory and verbal fluency deficits are the initial symptoms (Amieva et al, 2005), progressive amnesia sometimes being the only sign over a period of several years (Weintraub and Mesulam, 1993). A loss of factual information (declarative memory) is found for verbal and spatial items (Amieva et al, 2005; Graham et al, 2004; Helmes and Ostbye 2002; Jacobs et al, 1995; Kessels et al, 2005; Lee et al, 2003), whereas procedural memory is relatively spared, evaluated in pursuit-rotor (Eslinger and Damasio, 1986; Jacobs et al, 1999) and either verbal (Karlsson et al, 2002) or spatial (Kessels et al, 2005) priming tasks. However, some procedural tasks are impaired, such as prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response, implying a deficit in sensory gating (Ueki et al, 2006), as well as delay or trace conditioning of the eyeblink response (Woodruff-Pak and Papka, 1996; Woodruff-Pak et al, 1996).…”

“…In addition to amnesia, patients with Alzheimer's disease are susceptible to constructional apraxia, characterized by a difficulty in copying geometric figures or reproducing them with building blocks (Graham et al, 2004; Helmes and Ostbye 2002; Henderson et al, 1989; Nielson et al, 1996). Impaired flow perception (Kavcic et al, 2006; Tetewsky and Duffy, 1999), visual search (Parasuraman et al, 2000; Tales et al, 2004), abstract reasoning (Helmes and Ostbye 2002), and executive functions (Collette et al, 1999; Graham et al, 2004; Rainville et al, 2002b) may contribute to this symptom.…”

“…Impaired flow perception (Kavcic et al, 2006; Tetewsky and Duffy, 1999), visual search (Parasuraman et al, 2000; Tales et al, 2004), abstract reasoning (Helmes and Ostbye 2002), and executive functions (Collette et al, 1999; Graham et al, 2004; Rainville et al, 2002b) may contribute to this symptom. As a result, they are more likely than controls to be disoriented in a maze (Rainville et al, 2002a), a circular arena (Hort et al, 2007), a hospital ward (Monacelli et al, 2003), and in the streets when driving a motored vehicle (Uc et al, 2004).…”

Relationship between depression and burden in caregivers of alzheimer disease patients

“…Entre las demencias, la enfermedad de Alzheimer es la más frecuente, y es responsable de 70 % de los casos de enfermedad neurodegenerativa (Akhter et al, 2011;Huang y Jiang, 2011;Molinuevo y Arranz, 2012). Esta se ha convertido en un problema de salud pública dado el efecto que tiene para los pacientes, las familias y los sistemas de salud y abarca diversos síntomas desde alteraciones físicas, comportamentales y emocionales (Alberca, 2002;González, 2000;Helmes y Østbye, 2002;Lyketsos et al, 2002;Rogers y Jarrot, 2008;Strauss y Sperry, 2002), que llevan al paciente a una condición de dependencia y cuidado permanente (Ruiz, Nariño y Muñoz, 2010;Peinado y Garcés, 1998). Mayra Juliana Galvis, ara Mercedes cerquera córdoba En cuanto al cuidado informal de estos pacientes, Prince et al (2013) hacen referencia al que es provisto por la familia o amigos; y por su parte, el cuidado formal es ejercido por una persona que recibe un pago, y que, de acuerdo con Aparicio et al (2008) y Rogero (2009), puede tener o no capacitación para ejercer tal rol.…”

Avaliação de efeitos neuroprotetores e comportamentais do tratamento com geleia real em ratos Wistar submetidos à administração intracerebroventicular de estreptozotocina, um modelo da doença de Alzheimer esporádica

“…Desordens na linguagem em pessoas com AD são frequentes e incluem dificuldades de identificação, fluência, compreensão e associação das palavras, podendo levar a afasia. Desorganização no controle motor (apraxia) também pode ser percebida, além do não reconhecimento de objetos e/ou familiares (agnosia) (Helmes e Ostbye, 2002). Ainda, sintomas comportamentais e psicológicos da AD incluem agitação, comportamento motor aberrante, ansiedade, depressão e alucinações.…”