How would a cognitive psychologist both approach, and treat alzheimers?
2007-04-22 10:39:52 · 3 answers · asked by Joane 2 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
I am not sure what you mean by a cognitive psychologist or a cognitive therapist. Do you mean a cognitive behavior therapist, also know as CBT? Or a cognitive psychologist that studies the processes of thought.
In any case, Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive disease that most believe involves neurological degeneration of one form or another. The process appears to start in the midbrain and severely disrupts memory function to the point that people will forget how to eat or walk and perform daily living skills.
The usual therapy is to try to encourage the person to perform as much as he can for him/herself, try to maintain a routine, and try to surround the person with things that they have been familiar with for a long time. Many people with Alzheimer's will remember things from long ago, but not recently. They will mistake children as the children's parents because their memories are of the person when they were younger. Patience is important. Therapy can be provided for caretakers to cope with the changes and ups and downs of the disease. People with the disease can be stubborn at times, but then act like nothing happened.
Some medication can be helpful early in the disease, but new things are always being discovered. Take care.
2007-04-22 11:12:33 · answer #1 · answered by cavassi 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do not know really...but i have heard that Alzeimer's patients can only be help with medication in the EARLY STAGES...??? but i do not know for sure...no one in my family has had ALZEIMERS....thank God...So i would have to say no, a cognitive therapist approach would not work....Because they would not REMEMBER...SORRY!!!
2007-04-22 17:48:09 · answer #2 · answered by sweet 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure, but i do know that a well respected psychiatrist will approach it skeptically (thought it was a cry for attention)... Sadly enough, he was wrong.
2007-04-22 17:58:05 · answer #3 · answered by sir prize 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9129864&dopt=Abstract
I think you might find this article helpful.
2007-04-22 17:48:42 · answer #4 · answered by hsmommy06 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋