Life Events and Senile Dementia Affective Symptoms

1995 ◽  
Vol 166 (5) ◽  
pp. 613-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Orrell ◽  
Paul Bebbington
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Senile Dementia ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
Affective Symptoms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Severe Life Events

BackgroundPrevious research in the elderly has linked threatening life events with depression. Dementia sufferers are known to be sensitive to stressful changes in their daily life such as relocation. This study investigates whether threatening life events are associated with depressive symptoms in dementia sufferers.MethodUsing the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule, this study examined life events before admission in a group of 70 dementia patients compared with two control groups: dementia sufferers in the community and mentally fit elderly people matched for age and sex.ResultsLife events with severe threat were not significantly more frequent in the dementia patients than in two control groups. However, depressive symptoms in the dementia sufferers were significantly associated with independent severe life events. This strong association was maintained when a multivariate analysis was used to control for the effects of other social factors and severity of cognitive impairment. This association appears to be specific to the threat aspect of life events since there was no association between depressive symptoms and events relating to change in the social environment.ConclusionIn dementia sufferers, threatening life events are associated with depressive symptoms. This means that dementia sufferers are responsive to stress in the same way as cognitively intact individuals, and clinicians need to be more aware of the social influences on them.

Life events and senile dementia. I. Admission, deterioration and social environment change

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Orrell ◽  
Paul Bebbington
Keyword(s):  
Elderly People ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Senile Dementia ◽  
Environment Change ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
The Social ◽  
Initial Hypothesis ◽  
Age And Sex

SynopsisThis study examines the frequency of life events before admission and before deterioration in 70 dementia patients, in comparison with 50 dementia controls living in the community and 50 fit elderly people matched for age and sex. We hypothesized that there would be an excess of events connoting changes in routine and the social environment. Specific scales were developed to measure these aspects of events. Our results supported the initial hypothesis, confirming that it is the social disruptiveness of change rather than the threat implied by life events that is associated with deterioration. The findings are discussed in the light of current models of the dementia process.

Computed Tomography in the Elderly 2. Senile Dementia: Diagnosis and Functional Impairment

1980 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin J. Jacoby ◽  
Raymond Levy
Keyword(s):  
Senile Dementia ◽  
Clinical Signs ◽  
Cerebral Atrophy ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Cortical Atrophy ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Computed Tomographic ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
Ct Data

SummaryClinical, psychometric and computed tomographic (CT) data are presented on three groups of elderly subjects: 50 normals, 40 patients with senile dementia and 41 suffering from affective disorder. Demented subjects showed significantly more CT evidence of cerebral atrophy than non-demented subjects, but there was considerable overlap. Although patients with a history or clinical signs of cerebral infarction were specifically excluded, such infarcts were found more often in CT scans of the dementia subjects than in the others, particularly when the diastolic blood pressure was raised. When correlating cognitive impairment with CT changes, ventricular size emerged as more important in the dementia patients, in contrast to the controls, in whom cortical atrophy was related to lower scores on a cognitive test. Other interesting findings included an inverse relationship between cortical atrophy and paranoid delusions.

scholarly journals Oxytocin and vasopressin levels are decreased in the plasma of male schizophrenia patients

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 347-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Jobst ◽  
Sandra Dehning ◽  
Simone Ruf ◽  
Tobias Notz ◽  
Anna Buchheim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Social Withdrawal ◽  
Lower Plasma ◽  
Autism Symptoms ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
The Social ◽  
Autistic Symptoms ◽  
Altered Metabolism ◽  
Negative Syndrome ◽  
Severe Life Events

ObjectiveImpaired social functioning and autistic symptoms are characteristics of schizophrenia. The social hormones oxytocin (OT) and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) both modulate social interaction and therefore may be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. We investigated whether men with schizophrenia show altered OT and AVP levels compared with healthy controls (HC) and whether autism symptoms are associated with OT levels.MethodsForty-one men with non-acute schizophrenia and 45 matched HC were enroled. Schizophrenia was assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Blood samples were collected on 2 days, and plasma OT and AVP levels were measured by ELISA immunoassay.ResultsThe schizophrenia patients had significantly lower plasma OT levels than the HC; a similar trend was found for AVP. Plasma OT levels were associated with severe life events, fewer important attached persons, and a higher score on the PANSS negative scale; the most dominant PANSS items were ‘preoccupation’, ‘emotional withdrawal’, and ‘passive/apathetic social withdrawal’.ConclusionThese findings support an association between the social hormones OT and AVP and schizophrenia. We suggest that OT metabolism may be altered in schizophrenia, but other possible causes for decreased plasma OT levels in schizophrenia patients include decreased OT synthesis, mRNA expression, and translation. Especially the ‘autistic’ symptoms of schizophrenia seem to be closely linked to an altered metabolism of OT, the ‘attachment’ hormone.

Depressive symptoms in black and Puerto Rican adolescent mothers in the first 3 years postpartum

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie J. Leadbeater ◽  
Oriana Linares
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Adolescent Mothers ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Social Supports ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
First Year ◽  
Affective Symptoms ◽  
Depressed Mothers

AbstractWhile depressive symptoms in adolescent mothers may affect both their own and their babies' development, little research has focused on the mothers. Self-reported symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory were collected at 1, 6, 12, and 28–36 months postpartum. Concurrent and reciprocal longitudinal relations among symptom levels, stressful life events, and social supports were investigated. Symptom levels declined over the four assessments, with changes in somatic, rather than cognitive affective, symptoms accounting for the decrease. Stressful life events and all sources of social supports predicted concurrent levels of depressive symptoms, but only social supports predicted declines in symptoms in the first year postpartum. Reciprocally, depressive symptoms tended (p = .06) to predict increases in stressful life events over time. Mothers were also categorized as reporting few (50%), intermittent (27.5%), or chronic (22.5%) symptoms in the first 12 months postpartum. Intermittently and chronically depressed mothers perceived their own mothers as less accepting than nondepressed mothers. Compared to nondepressed and intermittently depressed mothers, chronically depressed mothers also reported more stressful life events, were more likely to live alone, and experienced more moves by 28–36 months postpartum. The reciprocal causal relations among depressive symptoms, stress, and attachments to grandmothers and peers are discussed.

Stressful life events, social rhytms, and depressive symptoms among the elderly: An examination of hypothesized causal linkages

1994 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly G. Prigerson ◽  
Charles F. Reynolds ◽  
Ellen Frank ◽  
David J. Kupfer ◽  
Charles J. George ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Stressful Life

Some Thoughts on the Prevalence and Etiology of Depressive Conditions in the Elderly

1988 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Cappeliez
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Key Aspects

AbstractThis article reevaluates the issue of the prevalence of depressive conditions (clinical depressions and depressive symptoms) in the elderly with the help of recent epidemiological data. It then underlines several key aspects of the etiology of depressive conditions of older adults. The perspective is a psychosocial analysis, which considers the etiological contributions of three types of factors: the socio-demographic status of the person, life events, and the resources of the person. The article concludes by delineating the implications for research in this area.

The Association Between Quantitative Measures of Dementia and of Senile Change in the Cerebral Grey Matter of Elderly Subjects

1968 ◽  
Vol 114 (512) ◽  
pp. 797-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Blessed ◽  
B. E. Tomlinson ◽  
Martin Roth
Keyword(s):  
Senile Dementia ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Cerebral Grey Matter ◽  
The Social ◽  
Calculated Risk ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Morbidity Risk

The ageing of many populations in recent years has directed increasing attention to the social, medical and biological problems of senescence. The psychological changes associated with ageing occupy a central position in inquiries in this field. The expectation of mental disorder shows a steep increase with advancing chronological age, and beyond 75 years a large part of this increase is accounted for by disorders associated with degenerative changes in the central nervous system for which we lack remedies at the present time. Larsson et al. (1963) have estimated that the aggregate morbidity risk for these disorders up to the age of 70 is 0·4 per cent., up to age 75, 1·2 per cent. and up to age 80, 5 per cent. For higher ages estimates were probably less reliable, but the calculated risk up to the age of 90 was 5·2 per cent. In a survey of a random sample of elderly people aged 65 and over in the general population, Kay et al. (1964), found a total of 4·2 per cent. of elderly subjects to be suffering from senile dementia, 2·9 per cent. being mild cases. The condition is generally recognized as being a major cause of serious infirmity among the elderly in psychiatric, geriatric, general medical and community practice alike.

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