Senile Dementia Essay

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Senile Dementia 1 SENILE DEMENTIA Senile Dementia: A Review of the Motion Picture “The Notebook” Jayme Rudloff Grays Harbor College of Washington Senile Dementia 2 Abstract For this assignment, the motion picture “The Notebook” was viewed and the psychological disorder of one of the charters was to be identified. A doctor in the movie states that Allie, one of the main charters, is suffering from senile dementia. While several points in the movie show an accurate depiction of the charteristics of senile dementia, many parts of the movie give false information about the abilities an individual diagnosed with the disease may have. I believe the movie may both help and hinder the field of psychology. Senile Dementia 3 Introduction Senile dementia is mental deterioration that is associated with old age and is caused by a degeneration of brain cells. Roeltgen writes, “Dementia is an impairment of thinking and memory that interferes with a person’s ability to do things which he or she previously was able to do”. Senile dementia is different then normal age-related forgetfulness. With normal age-related forgetfulness, you may joke about memory loss or may momentarily forget where you placed the car keys. With senile dementia, you may have little or no awareness of cognitive problems and you may not know what a car key is or may put it in an inappropriate place. The most common form of senile dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. Senile dementia is often used when referring to individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. According to Rabins (2008), “Older age is the strongest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. The likelihood of developing the disease doubles every 5 years after the age of 65.” In the early stages of Alzheimer’s or senile dementia, short-term memory is affected first. A person

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