Author Question: Which assessment data suggests a person who appears to have dementia instead has depression and ... (Read 29 times)

big1devin · **on:** Jul 19, 2018

Which assessment data suggests a person who appears to have dementia instead has depression and pseudodementia?

a. Demonstrates impaired judgment
b. Demonstrates impaired concentration
c. Has a history of significant losses or crises
d. Cognitive changes preceded mood changes

Question 2

A 70-year-old woman is beginning to notice mild memory impairment. She fears she is developing Alzheimer's disease and asks her granddaughter, a nurse, if this is the case.

What factors would the nurse and her grandmother use to distinguish normal age-related memory impairment from a developing dementia? a. Only dementias interfere with the ability to solve new problems.
b. Difficulty finding words occurs in dementia but not normal aging.
c. Normal changes of aging do not interfere with day-to-day functioning.
d. Dementia progresses much more rapidly than the changes of normal aging.

GCabra · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 19, 2018

Answer to Question 1

C
Persons with depression often have a history of losses or other experiences which have predisposed them to depression. In depression-induced pseudodementia, mood changes precede cognitive changes, and judgment is usually not significantly impaired. Concentration is affected in both dementia and depression.

Answer to Question 2

C
The normal memory changes associated with aging are not severe enough to interfere with completion of activities of daily living. Normal aging changes can cause reduced problem solving and difficulty with word finding, although to a milder degree than dementia. Although both normal aging changes and dementia progress slowly, the changes develop somewhat more rapidly, but not much more rapidly, in dementia.