Dementia group showed a higher rating than those in the control and MCI group.

Introduction

The case study that I choose to focus on this week is the Social Behavior in mild cognitive impairment and early dementia. The focus of this study was to create some sort of study as to whether or not there was in any in social functioning during the early stages of dementia.

Method

The participants in this case study consisted of 107 participants from Sydney. Of those 107, 26 met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-IV) criteria for dementia. 37 met the modified criteria for MCI and 44 where controls without any cognitive impairment. All the participants had adequate eyesight, hearing, and English language ability, and they all had a contact at which they met weekly. (Henry, et al., 2012)

According to the text, the majority of the participants (< 90%) were recruited from a large epidemiological study of aging. Of those that where referrals for dementia, they were less than 2 years post-diagnosis at the time that this study was conducted.

However, to increase the size of the sample for the experiment, the authors recruited eight more participants from a Memory Disorders Clinic. Of these eight one was a control, two were diagnosed with MCI and five were diagnosed with dementia. (Henry, et al., 2012)

Results:

After conducting the experiment the findings showed that the MCI group show more social appropriateness than those in the controlled group and those in the dementia group. Furthermore, when it came to social inappropriateness and stereotyping and prejudice, those that were placed in the Dementia group showed a higher rating than those in the control and MCI group.

Strength and Weaknesses:

After reviewing the findings and the results there are strength and weaknesses within the experiment. In the case of strength, because this is an initial test, this can set up as a baseline and reference for future testing.

However, there are weaknesses involved in this test. For instance, the test was conducted in one area vs. taking different people from different backgrounds. Social settings and cultural settings can and will play a factor in how people react. We in the United States react differently to those in Europe and those in Europe act differently to those in Australia (where the test subjects where picked from.)

Another weakness is that this is the first case study. Therefore it is hard to have any concrete facts being that this is the initial study. Once more studies are conducted then facts can be established when it comes to early dementia.

However, even though there are weaknesses within the case study, according to the report, “The present study indicates that even in the early stages of dementia, people are like to engaged in socially insensitive behaviors, which themselves are related to short-term memory difficulties.” (Henry, et al., 2012)

Suggestions on improvement

I feel that while this case study was interesting, it is only an initial study therefore there is not enough findings to really establish any kind of solid base line for this type of theory. I believe that more case studies need to be conducted in order to establish true findings when it comes to cognitive impairment and early dementia.

Henry, J. D., Hippel, W., Thompson, C., Pulford, P., Schadev, P., & Brodaty, H. (2012). Social behavior in mild cognitive impairment and early dementia. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 806-813.