Abstract
Dementia, or Major Neurocognitive Disorders, affect over 46 million adults worldwide. Many causes of dementia exist, the majority being of the Alzheimer’s type. Other causes include Lewy Body Dementia (DLB), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Vascular Dementia (VaD), and mixed origins. Type and severity determine the constellation of symptoms experienced: cognitive, functional, and behavioral. No preventive or curative treatments are available, and only a handful of pharmacologic options slow disease progression, for those with a progressive etiology. Language has become a diagnostic criterion for Major Neurocognitive Disorders, per DSM 5, given equal importance to learning and memory. Communicative deficits may be the harbinger of the illness, or they may occur later, but they will occur. Improving the retained communicative skills of an individual with dementia will increase their quality of life and that of their families or caregivers. The authors illustrate types and symptoms of dementia through clinically-based vignettes.
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Notes
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The dominant hemisphere controls most language, though the nondominant hemisphere controls prosody, including inflection, rhythm and manner of speaking. The dominant hemisphere also contains the main areas for cognitive activity and emotions (Kaufman et al., 2016, p. 155).
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Kohlenberg, C.J., Kohlenberg, N.J. (2020). Dementia, Etiologies, and Implications on Communication. In: Stickle, T. (eds) Learning from the Talk of Persons with Dementia. The Language of Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43977-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43977-4_2
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