Comprehension of Emotions: Comparison between Alzheimer Type and Vascular Type Dementias

Abstract

This study investigated the ability of recognizing emotion in dementia. Twenty-five patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), 25 patients with vascular dementia (VD), and 12 normal control subjects were evaluated as to general cognition, visuoperception and emotion recognition. The score on the emotion recognition task significantly correlated with that of the Mini-Mental State Examination for VD patients while this was not the case for DAT patients. Moreover, VD patients performed significantly worse than DAT patients on the emotion recognition task in spite of the fact that there was no difference in the general cognitive and visuoperceptual abilities between them. The result of this study coupled with the past studies led to the hypothesis that the relationship between intellectual deficits and the deterioration in recognizing emotions differs according to type of dementia. Caregivers in nursing homes and hospitals need to take into account their patients’ intellectual deficits but also their deteriorating ability of identifying emotions.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Social and Emotional Questionnaire on Dementia for the Brazilian population

“…11 The items that loaded most highly in each factor were used to form five subscales: emotion recognition (5,8,12,18,23); empathy (3,9,15,20,30); social conformity (11,14,25); antisocial behavior (1,6,13,24); and sociability (4,16,17,19,21,27,29). The total score for the patient version of the SEQ had good correlation with the patients' total score on the Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS) (P = 0.01) and the total score for the proxy version had strong correlation with the proxy-version total score of PCRS (P < 0.01).…”

“…11 Nelis et al 7 conducted the first validation study on the SEQ among people with dementia. Varimax rotation yielded three interpretable solutions: the 11-item emotional recognition and empathy (ERE) domain (3,5,8,9,11,12,15,18,20,23,30), the 7-item social relationship (SR) domain (16,17,19,25,26,28,29) and the 6-item prosocial behavior (PB) domain (2,4,6,10,13,22). There were small but significant differences between self-ratings and caregivers' ratings for all the domains: ERE: …”

“…However, recognition of emotions may be preserved in Alzheimer's disease, in comparison with vascular dementia. 8,9 Under frontotemporal dementia, individuals might present behavior that is incompatible with rules and social norms, along with difficulty in understanding emotions. 10 Impairment of social and emotional functioning may damage communication skills and interpersonal relationships, thereby directly influencing the activities of daily living and the quality of life of people with dementia and their caregivers.…”

Behind the faces: Alzheimer’s disease and emotional blindness

“…, in the wake of previous study in patients with FTD, vascular dementia and even AD 16 , brings relevant information on social cognition in mild AD patients. The authors evaluated the performance on face recognition task longitudinally in 30 mild AD patients.…”

Consciência da doença na demência

“…Portanto, o comprometimento da consciência dos déficits cognitivos estaria associado à neurodegeneração, independentemente do estágio da doença. Já na comparação entre o reconhecimento e a compreensão de emoções entre pacientes de DA e DV, os pacientes com DA, apesar dos déficits cognitivos, mantêm a capacidade de reconhecer emoções quando comparados aos vasculares (Shimokawa et al, 2000). Clinicamente, essas diferenças permitem que os pacientes com DA tenham menos ansiedade diante de seus sintomas do que os pacientes com DV.…”