aging and mental health Flashcards
Issues in Aging
-Aging may have a great negative impact for women or minorities
-Ageism refers to discrimination against any person based on age (can be young or old person)
Diversity in Aging
-Levels of “old”
-Young-old: ages 65-74
-Old-old: ages 75-84
-Oldest-old: over age 85
Measurement Issues in Aging Research
- Age effects are the consequences of being a given chronological age
- Retirement, Social security- Cohort effects are the consequences of having been born in a particular year and having grown up during a particular period of time
- Great depression, World War II
- Time-of-measurement effects are confounds that arise because particular historic events have specific effects
- Cohort effects are the consequences of having been born in a particular year and having grown up during a particular period of time
Psychological Issues in Aging
- Problems can arise from
- Many common pressures found during that time of life
- Unique traumatic experiences
- Neurocognitive disorders=biological abnormalities - Geropsychology is the field of psychology dedicated to the mental health of elderly people
- Booming industry
The psychological problems of divided into two groups
Disorders that may be common in people of all ages but are connected to the process of aging
- Depressive, anxiety, and substance use disorders - Often recurrences from earlier psychological problems - Can be first episodes - Disorders of cognition that result from brain abnormalities - Delirium, mild neurocognitive disorders, and major neurocognitive disorders
Dementia
refers to a gradual deterioration of intellectual ability that interferes with social and occupational function
- Also called neurocognitive disorder - most publicized and feared psychological problems among the elderly - Dementia can involve problems in - Memory - Poor hygiene - Language disorder - Faulty judgment - Delirium (state of mental confusion)
Alzheimer’s Disease
- Alzheimer’s Disease involves a progressive deterioration of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus leading to difficulty in concentration and pronounced memory loss
- Alzheimer’s disease involves
- Loss of nerve cells within brain due to plaque formation and neurofibrillary tangles
- Reduced activity of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh)
- Alzheimer’s disease involves
- Most common form of dementia
- most often occurs after the age of 65
- Its prevalence increases markedly among people in their late 70s and early 80s- The time between onset and death is typically 8 to 10 years, although some people may survive for as many as 20 years
- It usually begins with mild memory problems, lapses of attention, and difficulties in language and communication
- As the symptoms of dementia intensify, people sow less and less awareness of their limitations
- Eventually they become fully dependent on other people
- The late phase of the disorder can last from 2 to 5 years
Factors that may prevent Alzheimer’s
Anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen
- Nicotine - High levels of cognitive ability - Maintaining high levels of cognitive activity - No cure for disease
Frontal-Lobe Dementias
Frontal-Temporal dementia (a.k.a. known as Pick’s disease)
-Cognitive impairments of memory not as severe as Alzheimer’s
-Apathy
-Loss of serotonin neurons in brain (rather than ACh)
-Impairment of executive functions
-Planning
-Problem solving
-Goal directed behavior
-Difficulty recognizing emotion
Frontal-Subcortical dementias include:
-Parkinson’s disease (muscle tremors)
-Huntington’s disease (muscle writhing)-inherited
-Vascular dementia (muscle weakness-stroke)
- -Multi-infarct dementia- multiple mini-strokes
-Vascular dementia
(multi-infarct* dementia)
- May follow a cerebrovascular accident, or stroke, during which blood flow to specific areas of the brain was cut off, with resultant damage - This dementia is progressive but its symptoms begin abruptly, rather than gradually - Cognitive functioning may continue to be normal in the areas of brain not affected by the stroke - This is the second most common type of dementia among the elderly * infarct=dead tissue resulting from loss of oxygen/blood supply
Other causes of dementia
- HIV infections
- Traumatic brain injury (old and new)
- Substance abuse (long term and acute)
- Various medical conditions such as meningitis or advanced syphilis
Treatment of Dementia
Alzheimer’s Disease has no treatment to halt or reverse the disease
-Drug studies seek to boost remaining ACh function in brain using
-Drugs that block the breakdown of ACh
-Drugs that block the formation of B-amyloid
-Drugs are used to treat the specific symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (depression, anxiety, sleep disorder)
Psychological therapy is to be supportive
-Treat families
Delirium
Delirium is a clouded state of consciousness involving
-Difficult in concentration
-Disruption of the sleep-waking cycle
-Incoherent speech
-Memory impairment for recent events
-Perceptual disturbances (delusions and hallucinations)
-Mood/activity swings
As a person’s awareness of the environment becomes less clear, he or she has great difficulty concentrating, focusing attention, and thinking sequentially
-This leads to misinterpretations, illusions, and on occasion, hallucinations
Must be treated as a medical issue
-Always has a physical cause
Comes on SUDDENLY
Cause of Delirium
- Drug intoxications and drug-withdrawal reactions
- Side effects
- Polypharmacy -Practice of prescribing multiple drugs to patients
- especially problematic when seeing multiple providers
- Metabolic/nutritional imbalances (diabetes)
- Infections (fevers)
- Stress (environmental change)
- Major surgery
- Brain damage
Summary of Brain Disorders in Old Age
Dementia
gradual deterioration of cognitive ability that interferes with social and occupational function
- Organic cause and is progressive - Can involve problems with - Memory (short and long term) - Activities of Daily Living (ADLS) - Language Disorder (Dysnomia) - Reasoning and higher cognitive function (judgment) - Delirium (state of mental confusion)
Summary of Brain Disorders in Old Age
Delirium
clouded state of consciousness involving
- Organic cause, but is transitory and reversible - Can involve - Difficulty in concentration - Disruption of the sleep-waking cycle - Incoherent speech - Memory impairment of recent events - Perceptual disturbances - Mood activity swings - 40% mortality rate because of what is causing the delirium
