Language impairment and aggression in Alzheimer's disease

✍ Scribed by Steven W. Welsh; Frank M. Corrigan; Marian Scott

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 442 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199603)11:3<257::aid-gps330>3.0.co;2-u

✦ Synopsis

The opportunity, in a drug study of Alzheimer's disease, is taken to explore the association of aggression and cognitive impairment. This is an important association to explore in its own right. However, in view of the increasing age of the population and the particular problems aggression poses for carers, any association of aggression with cognitive impairment assumes particular importance. A marked association of language impairment with aggression is demonstrated (Spearman R = -0.735, p = 0.0005, N = 18).

KEY wom--cognition; language; aggression; Alzheimer's; dementia With an increasingly aged population, age-related conditions become important for patients, relatives and other carers. Dementia is an age-related condition of immense importance. Approximately YO of the population aged 65 years or over have a dementia of some type and 20% of the population aged 80 years or over. Problems for carers result from both the cognitive impairment and the behavioural change.

Aggression can be a particularly difficult behaviour for carers to cope with. It has been said that 'a satisfactory and consistent definition of aggression has been elusive' (Mackintosh, 1990) and it is difficult to argue with this statement. Aggression, anger, hostility, irritability and violence all appear as interwoven strands, whether forming a tapestry or a tangle is difficult to discern. Snaith and Taylor (1985) state that the terms 'hostility', 'anger' and 'aggression' are misleading substitutes for a mood of general irascibility and go on to define irritability. Kennedy (1992) considers anger to be coupled to and inseparable from