Personality Changes in Alzheimer's Disease
- 1 May 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in Archives of Neurology
- Vol. 49 (5), 486-491
- https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.1992.00530290070014
Abstract
How personality changes in Alzheimer's disease is not well understood. Accentuations of premorbid personality, systematic shifts in personality traits, and specific personality changes affecting subtypes of patients have been postulated. To investigate which of these alternatives occurs in Alzheimer's disease, caregivers were given a comprehensive personality inventory standardized for use by informants. Caregivers observed more neurotic, less extroverted, and less conscientious behavior. To a smaller extent, patients with Alzheimer's disease were reported as becoming less agreeable and less open. The changes in reports of neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, and openness suggested consistent systematic shifts across all patients. Patients with depressive features were reported to have been more neurotic; those with paranoid delusions were reported as having been more hostile. Premorbid personality traits may predispose to subsequent psychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease.Keywords
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mini-Mental-StateZeitschrift für Gerontopsychologie & -psychiatrie, 2009
- Personality continuity and the changes of adult life.Published by American Psychological Association (APA) ,2004
- Personality Alterations in Dementia of the Alzheimer Type: A Three-Year Follow-up StudyJournal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 1989
- Personality Alterations in Dementia of the Alzheimer TypeArchives of Neurology, 1988
- Cornell scale for depression in dementiaBiological Psychiatry, 1988
- The Progression of Personality Changes in Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer's TypeJournal of the American Geriatrics Society, 1987
- Behavioral changes in patients with mild senile dementia of the Alzheimer's typePsychiatry Research, 1987
- Personality stability and its implications for clinical psychologyClinical Psychology Review, 1986
- Pathological verification of ischemic score in differentiation of dementiasAnnals of Neurology, 1980
- The Association Between Quantitative Measures of Dementia and of Senile Change in the Cerebral Grey Matter of Elderly SubjectsThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1968