Coping With Dementia Symptoms
Agnosia is a Common Contributor to Delusions in Dementia Patients
Feb 9, 2009
One of the symptoms of dementia is delusions. A delusion is a fixed, false belief. Dealing with delusions is an art as much as a skill.
What is Agnosia?
Some dementia patients typically become unable to recognize their home, their spouse, or themselves in the mirror. Though the beliefs that the patient is not home or the spouse is a stranger are similar to delusions, what these dementia patients are really experiencing is an agnosia.
An agnosia is the loss of ability to recognize objects or people who should be very familiar, according to Robert B. Santulli, MD, editor of the Upper Valley Memory Center Handbook, published in 2007.
How to Cope With The Dementia Symptom: “I Want to Go Home.”
The patient will say, “I want to go home,” and may repeatedly pack her bags and persistently try to convince her caregiver to drive her home. She may even slip out of the house when nobody is looking in order to try to "go home".
Distraction and redirection are recommended. Trying to prove to dementia patients that they are home can cause too much distress. They are unable to be logical due to brain damage. Even if they believed that they were home, the fact that they don’t don’t recognize their surroundings as home can be much more frightening than simply thinking that they are not at home.
What to do When Agnosia Causes This Dementia Symptom
First it is important to make sure the dementia patient cannot leave the house and wander. Many caregivers install locks that cannot be defeated by the dementia patient.
Caregivers can try telling their dementia patient that they need to stay put for awhile. They can ask patients what they liked best about their old house. The dementia patient may have a particular house from the past in mind. The caregiver can utilize the patient’s response to change the subject. For example, didn’t that house have a nice flower garden? I remember you always liked to plant flowers. Would you like to plant some flowers today?
Or try, "It's not time to go yet. Let's listen to some music while we are waiting."
How to Handle The Dementia Symptom of “Where is my Husband/Wife?”
The dementia patient may ask his wife, have you seen my wife? Agnosia prevents the patient from matching up the visual image of the person in front of him to his memory of his wife.
Again, don’t try to prove that the dementia patient is wrong. Instead, be reassuring. Assure the patient that his wife will return soon and offer to keep him company until she comes back.
Another option is to leave the room for awhile and then return. Agnosia comes and goes, sometimes from moment to moment. The person with dementia may recognize his wife after she returns.
In addition, it is the visual image the person with agnosia has difficultly with. Wearing a familiar perfume or article of clothing might help.
Though it can be emotionally upsetting to the caregiver, it is important to remember that the dementia patient does remember and miss “his wife.” He simply cannot make the connection to the person in front of him, due to a visual processing problem.
Dementia/Agnosia Symptom: Who is that Person in the Mirror?
Sometimes agnosia causes the dementia patient not to recognize his or her own reflection in the mirror. As a result, he or she thinks a stranger has come into the house. Removing the mirrors from the house may be necessary.
The dementia symptoms mentioned here usually do not respond to medication, according to Santulli. Finessing by use of reassurance and distraction is recommended. Utilizing calming relationship skills are what is needed on the part of the caregiver. Reducing patient anxiety is the goal.
Related article: Caring for Alzheimer's Patients
 |
