Behaviours Associated With Cognitive Disorders

Behaviours Associated With Cognitive Disorders

Cognitive disorders are often associated with certain problematic behaviours. These behaviours can either be observed in the patient by the caregivers or can be reported by the patient. Common behaviours associated with cognitive disorders include hallucinations, agitation and disinhibition, and identity confusion.

Hallucinations are sensational and experiences that are not understandable to others, given they are only real and vivid to the patient experiencing them, and they can result in positive and negative consequences. Hallucinations are classified into the auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile categories. Auditory hallucinations include the patient claiming to hear voices and other sounds like murmuring and whispering that cannot be verified by anybody else. With visual hallucinations, a person sees objects, people, and patterns that are not present,  for example, seeing snakes crewing over the bed when they are not there. Olfactory hallucinations are characterized by a sense of taste or smell that is not present. This behaviour can be potentially dangerous for a patient who believes he is being poisoned as he might refrain from eating. The tactile hallucinations involve feelings of sensation or movement in the person’s body that do not exist. Since people with hallucinations do not experience things as they are,

caregivers should respond to the feelings and not the issue.

Agitation and disinhibition are types of behaviour linked to the functional and structural changes in the amygdala, frontal cortex, and cingulate cortex due to the deficit in the ability to regulate fear and appraise threat. Agitation is identified in the context of irritability, restiveness, and restlessness, and it manifests itself in excessive motor activity, verbal aggression, and physical aggression.  Disinhibition is an expression of the emotional distress involving chronic loss of social restraint. Disinhibition presents itself as a socially intrusive behaviour and as hyperactivity. An example would include a person with a cognitive disorder persistently disturbing and interrupting other people even after being warned to stop. Therefore, agitation and disinhibition are burdensome for caregivers and physicians to manage. As a result, it would require care givers to be extra careful when handling patients with agitation and disinhibition as it would otherwise result in patient abuse, caregiver burnout, and institutionalization of the patients.

Identity confusion involves a sense of confusion about who a person is. A person with a cognitive disorder might suffer from memory loss leading to disconnection from the sense of self. As a result, the person has two or more distinct states accompanied by changes in thinking and behaviour. The person has trouble defining things that interest them because personal preference and attitudes on matters such as food, politics, and activities may suddenly shift forth and back because the identities happen involuntarily. In addition to the alterations in personality, the person experiences distortions in place, time, and situation. For instance, the body of the person may feel different; the person may feel like a child even if he is an adult or feel like the opposite gender. Although the other states may appear very different, they are all manifestations of a single person; thus, they can be channelled towards the person’s personality.

Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a disorder that causes brain cells to degenerate and die, leading to the destruction of memory, cognitive skills, and the capacity to perform simple duties. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 75% of the causes of dementia in the U.S. Early signs of the disorder are marked by forgetting new things and difficulty in thinking especially when dealing with abstract concepts involving numbers. As the disease progresses, the patient develops severe memory impairment and trouble making reasonable judgments and decisions in everyday situations. For instance, a patient my find responding to every problem such as food burning on the stove or wearing clothes appropriate for the weather a challenge. The disease is also characterized by changes in personality and behaviour, leading to problems such as social withdrawal, delusions, depression, apathy, hallucinations, mood swings, and aggressiveness. Unfortunately, the test for Alzheimer’s has not yet been developed so; doctors rule out other conditions when making a diagnosis by evaluating the signs and symptoms. Once the diagnosis is made, and a patient is identified as having the disorder, the patient is introduced to treatment. The treatment of Alzheimer’s disease involves the use of drug therapy as well as behaviour therapy. Drug therapy aims at reducing the symptoms of the disease given the death of brain cells cannot be reversed. Some of the drugs administered include Tacrine (Cognex) and Donepezil (Aricept). Behaviour therapy ensures that the patients live more independently by enhancing skills for day to day life. Risk factors for the disease include ageing and experiencing serve traumatic brain injuries. Thus individuals can reduce their risk of trauma-related Alzheimer’s disease by wearing safety belts and taking precautionary measures when playing contact sports