Including Social Factors in the Analysis of Reminiscence in Elderly Individuals

1993 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Lamme ◽  
Jan Baars

Developmental psychologists have studied reminiscence in elderly individuals using widely varied conceptions of adult development. Determinist psychologists conceived of reminiscent behavior in elderly individuals as constituting the last phase in normal development. Contextualist psychologists have pointed to the historical and cultural relativity of adult development, and highlighted the variation in elderly persons with respect to reminiscent behavior. However, they do not fully acknowledge the role the environment plays in establishing reminiscent behavior in elderly people. Therefore, sociological life course theory should be included in the analyses and interpretation of this behavior.

Author(s):  
Mariana Macedo Alvim ◽  
Danielle Teles da Cruz ◽  
Glenda de Almeida Aquino ◽  
Isabel Cristina Gonçalves Leite

Abstract Background Prescription of medications for elderly individuals is complex, potentially involving polypharmacy, drug interactions, and inappropriate medication. Notable among the medications are benzodiazepines, whose long-term use is common and growing among the elderly population. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of potential drug interactions (PDI) in elderly community-dwelling patients who use benzodiazepines. Method Cross-sectional study, conducted via household survey, with 73 elderly persons in Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil. The search and classification of PDIs was carried out using the Micromedex® system. Results The prevalence of benzodiazepine use in this population was 18.3% (95% CI, 15.2-21.6). The use of benzodiazepines was associated with polypharmacy (p<0.01; PR 3.03; 95% CI, 1.79-5.26). A total of 157 PDI occurrences were found in 69.9% of the elderly people assessed. Of these, 25 were related to benzodiazepines. In the elderly individuals who use benzodiazepines, polypharmacy was associated with PDI (p<0.01; PR = 16.13; 95% CI, 4.67-55.55). PDI occurrence was high in the elderly people who use benzodiazepines, including interactions of highly significant clinical value. Conclusion In general, PDI is associated with polypharmacy, which demonstrates the need to rationalize drug use in the elderly population through continuous monitoring, seeking the simplest and safest possible therapeutic regimen.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089801012110253
Author(s):  
Verónica G. Walker ◽  
Elizabeth K. Walker

Older adults diagnosed with schizophrenia (OADWS) often enter long-term care facilities with unique challenges related to trauma and stress experienced throughout their life course. Health care workers often report that when they work with this population, they feel unprepared due to limited training. In this article, life course theory is presented as a lens for holistic nursing research and as a way for nurses to adapt interventions already used with cognitively impaired older adults (e.g., those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease) for OADWS in long-term care. It is hoped that these ideas will facilitate discussion of ways to inform training for holistic long-term care of OADWS. Holistic principles of nursing addressed with life course theory as a lens include the following: (a) accounting for strengths and challenges; (b) honoring experiences, values, and health beliefs; (c) viewing interrelationships with the environment; and (d) nurturing of peace, wholeness, and healing.


Author(s):  
Krzysztof Pękala ◽  
Andrzej Kacprzak ◽  
Piotr Chomczyński ◽  
Jakub Ratajczak ◽  
Michał Marczak ◽  
...  

Both juvenile and adult criminal careers show regularities in the origins of delinquency, the dynamics of the criminal pathway, and the turning points that lead to desistance/persistence in crime. Research shows that family, education, and friendship environments contribute significantly to the individual choices that create criminal biographies. Our aim was to apply core aspects of life course theory (LCT): trajectory, the aged-graded process, transitions, institutions, and ultimately how desistance/persistence factor into explaining the criminal careers of Polish offenders. The research is based on in-depth interviews (130) carried out with both offenders (90) and experts (40). The offenders were divided into two groups: 30 were juveniles, and 60 were adults of whom half were sentenced for the first time (30) and half were recidivists (30) located in correctional institutions or released. The experts group (40) includes psychologists, educators, social rehabilitators, and prison and juvenile detention personnel working with offenders. We used triangulation of researcher, data, and methodology. Our data revealed that similar biographical experiences characterized by an early socialization, family and friends-based circles laid the groundwork for their entry and continued participation in criminal activity. Juvenile and adult first-time sentenced offenders led criminal careers significantly different from those of recidivists, who faced problems with social adaptation caused by lack of family and institutional support.


1989 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda L. Viney ◽  
Yvonne N. Benjamin ◽  
Carol Preston

Mourning and reminiscence are therapeutic processes common in therapeutic work with the elderly. However, a theoretical explanation of why they are effective has been lacking. Personal construct theory accounts for both in terms of the search of elderly persons for validation of their construct systems. In this article, this explanation of the parallel psychotherapeutic processes is explored, together with relevant information from the literature on mourning and reminiscence. Therapeutic case studies illustrate the characteristics of the two processes and the relationship between them.


1989 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Macey

For many elderly people, residential energy conservation options are often limited to little or no cost measures such as reducing their winter nighttime thermostat setting. As a result, conflicts can arise between the need to preserve health and the necessity to conserve energy. Under these circumstances, accidental hypothermia is an important and growing concern. This study examines the association between concern for health and the adoption by elderly persons of a lowered winter nighttime thermostat setting. Evidence from two surveys of elderly respondents who maintain separate owner-occupied residences shows that health and thermal comfort concerns are the major reasons for nonadoption of this energy conservation measure. Methods are presented for increasing energy conservation while maintaining a healthful home environment.


2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
PW Overstall

Falls, once thought to be an inevitable consequence of aging are now known to be the result of multiple pathological, psychological and social factors. Moreover, well-conducted research has shown that they can be prevented. Initially it appeared that multiple interventions by a multi-disciplinary team would be the most sensible and indeed the only effective approach. However, single interventions may sometimes be appropriate and on cost grounds would be preferable, provided that they are effective. This is clearly the case in the use of pacemakers for patients who are falling because of cardioinhibitory syncope. However, home modification, a seemingly obvious and intuitively correct intervention, has not been shown to prevent falls, although advice from an experienced occupational therapist can reduce falls, especially in those who have fallen previously. Whether balance training on its own is effective in reducing falls, or needs to be combined with muscle-strengthening exercises and other interventions, will be examined.


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