Clinical Neuropsychology Flashcards
How many adults in Australians are 65 and over?
One in every six Australians
What percentage of older Australians were living in households?
95%
The likelihood of living in cared accomodation increased with age from ___ of people aged 65-79 to ___ of people aged >80 years.
1.4%
14.3%
How many older Australians lived in a low income household?
Two-thirds
What percentage of older adults reported having one or more long term health condition - with the most common being arthritis, hypertension and back problems?
86.5%
How many older Australians had a disability?
Half
What are some specific assessment issues with older adults that the APS ethical guidelines emphasises?
-Understanding the ageing process
-Being aware of own attitudes and values towards older adults
-Not assuming older adults presenting problems are attributable to old age
-Being aware of potential cognitive, sensory and physical deficits faced by older adults
Up to what percentage of older adults report cognitive changes (particularly memory)?
up to 95% of people report this
What is often the most significant reported symptoms of anxiety and depression in older age?
Cognitive changes
What are the two scales which are designed for older adults to measure anxiety and depression?
GDS (geriatric depression scale) and GAI (geriatric anxiety inventory)
Why are there different scales for older adults measuring anxiety and depression?
Somatic symptoms (trembling) more common in older adults.
Less cognitively demanding.
Cognition typically ___ from 20 over lifetime.
declines
We lose about what percentage of brain weight and volume each decade of life?
2%
As we age, we experience ___ in myelination and ___ in connections among neurons, ____ in certain neurotransmitters like dopamine and ____ blood flow.
Losses
reduction
decrease
reduced
Where in the brain experiences the most reduction over lifetime?
Prefrontal region of cortex-attention and working memory
Sensory changes are common as we age - what percentage of adults experience these?
93%
What are some social cognitive explanations of age related memory decline? (4)
-Negative age stereotypes
-Worry about underlying cause of memory slips
-Reduced routine and habit
-Increased overload of old memories
What did one study say about the power of positive reinforcement on memory performance in older age?
Given task they knew they could/couldn’t get.
Memory recall significantly higher for prior task success group.
____ appear to affect memory
Stereotypes
What percentage of older adults DON’T have dememtia?
Over 85% (most of them)
How many people have dementia worldwide?
46 million
What is the expected increase prevalence in dementia rates by 2050?
Triple
What is the economic impact of dementia worldwide?
US $18 billion
What is the greatest cause of disability in people >65?
Dementia
What is the second leading cause of death, which is also the leading cause of death for women in Australia?
Dementia
What is the only disease in the top 10 most common diseases with no reliable method of prevention, slowing, or cure?
Dementia
What is the difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia?
Dementia is a syndrome, not a disease. A pattern of symptoms that can be caused by many different illnesses.
Dementia refers to a syndrome involving progressive decline in
memory and other intellectual abilities.
What are some of the most common causes of dementia?
-Alzheimer’s
-Parkinson’s
-Huntingtons disease
-Fronto-temporal dementia
What is the criteria for all dementia?
Cognitive or behavioural symptoms that:
-Interfere with function at work or usual activities
-Decline from previous levels
-Are not due to delirium or psychiatric disorder
Alois Alzheimer described the first case of alzheimer’s in a 51 year old woman. The autopsy identified the hallmark pathology of AD which was what?
Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
Alzheimer’s disease is a pathological disease, meaning what?
Can only be officially diagnosed after death.
What does insidious onset mean, in regard to dementia patients?
Steady worsening over time
If the first presenting features are impairment in work finding, what type of dementia might be present?
Logopenic primary progressive aphasia
If the first presenting features are visual and other posterior cognitive impairments, what type of dementia might be present?
Posterior cortical atrophy
If there are predominant behavioural features (loss of empathy) and cognitive, what kind of dementia might be present?
Behavioural and dysexecutive variance
What are some pharmacological recommendations for dementia?
-Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors
-NMDA antagonist
-Others to control neuropsychiatric symptoms
-Dopamine agonists
What are some non-pharmacological ways to manage dementia?
-Psychoeducation
-Support services (family and client)
-Management of health conditions
-Cog strategies
-Speech therapy
What are some key elements to consider in an assessment for possible dementia?
-History (referral question, client interview, other info)
-Presentation (behavioural observations)
-Formal Tasks
-Formulation
-Ideas re management/recommendations
What are some important differentials to note when it comes to cognition?
-Normal cognition
-Mild cognitive impairment/mild neuro-cognitive disorder
-Psychiatric causes (particularly depression)
If someone had mild cognitive impairment, what would we be looking out for to see that it hasn’t turned into dementia?
Lack of functional impairment.
What is mild cognitive impairment characterised by?
Subjective cognitive concerns and objective impairment on tests.
MCI increases the risk for
dementia
Depression and anxiety and ___ in older age.
Less common
What are some factors when comparing AD dementia to depression in older people?
-More acute onset
-Cog concerns out of proportion to performance
-Dysphoric mood and loss of self esteem
-Effortful processing, diminished effort, reduced processing speed, attention
If you can’t identify functional impairment that is affecting daily life, what can not be diagnosed and why?
Dementia, cause it’s not influencing his daily life.
If adults are independent in activities of daily living, what does this most likely mean?
At this stage, they most likely do not meet the criteria for dementia.
Vascular dementia are a common cause of dementia. What are some of the risk factors of this?
Hypertension, atrial fibrillation, smoking, diabetes, etc.
Vascular dementia is more common in ____, however Alzheimer’s disease is more common in ___.
men
women
What are some of the criteria for vascular dementa?
-Dementia, BUT more recently vascular cognitive impairment
-Cerebrovascular disease
-Relationship between dementia and cerebrovascular disease evidence by at least one of :
1. Dementia onset within 3 months post recognised stroke
2. Abrupt deterioration in cognition
3. Fluctuating, stepwise progression of cognitive deficits
What are some consistent features of vascular dementia diagnoses, and what indicates that it is unlikely to be this?
Gait disturbance, frequent falls, mood changes.
Unlikely to be vascular dementia if there is early onset memory deficit and progressive worsening of memory and other cognitive functions in the absence of corresponding focal lesions, absence of neurological signs other than cognition
What is the updated criteria for vascular cognitive disorders?
- Establishment of a cognitive disorder (not necessarily dementia)
- Determination that vascular disease is the dominant if not exclusive pathology accounting for cognitive deficits.
Outline dementia with lewy bodies:
-Common form of dementia
-Occurs in older age, more common in men
-Pathology: lewy bodies (note also present in AD)
What are some of the clinical features of DLB diagnostic criteria?
Dementia with (core clinical features, first 3 typically early):
1. Fluctuating cognition
2. Recurrent visual hallucinations (typically well formed and detailed, around 80% clients)
3. REM sleep behaviour disorder (thrashing out in bed etc)
4. Parkinsonism
What are some supportive clinical features of DLB diagnostic criteria?
Severe sensitivity to antipsychotics, repeated falls, non visual hallucinations etc.
(DLB vs. PDD), DLB diagnosed when dementia occurs _____ with parkinsonism.
Before or concurrently
Parkinson disease dementia (PDD) used to describe dementia occurring in the context of well established Parkinson’s disease. Usually there is a significant cognitive symptoms on average ____ later.
Approx 10 years
In DLB, memory is usually what?
Less severely affected than AD.