Author(s)

Cyril Hazif-Thomas¹, Remy Billon², Philippe Thomas³

¹Department of Psychiatry for Elderly, CHRU de Brest, Bohars, France.
²Hospital St Louis, La Rochelle, France.
³Semiotics Research Center (CeReS. EA 3648), University of Limoges, Limoges, France.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative illness with frequency of occurrence increasing with old age. If memory impairment setting progressively is here an element associated upfront, other neurocognitive troubles are also associated, for example, language impairment which can degenerate into aphasia. Aim of the study. To evaluate semantic and textual impairment in AD. Methods. Populations studied concerned 151 AD patients in consultation at Brest University Hospital. Certain sociodemographic data (sex, age, cultural levels) were collected as well as results from neuropsychological tests: (Folstein-MMSE; Dubois’s 5-word test; fluencies, Dubois’ s frontal test battery; Cornell’s scale for depression; Barbizet’s test, “The Lion’s tale”, for textual analysis. Demented patients were composed of 102 females and 49 males of average age 80.3 ± 6.91. All the tests, including the number of items memorized latterly in the Barbizet’s test are impaired all the more by Folstein’s test being altered. The formal fluency on demented patients is less impaired than the semantic lexical fluency test (scored respectively 5.74 ± 1. 09 versus 4.41 ± 2. 19; t = 5.60, p < 0.01). The studied demented cohort shows more intrusions (n = 36) than inversions in the delayed Lion’s tale, whether for items or for episodes in which they occur (n = 19). The regressive PLS analysis shows that for the explanation of the overall scores to do with “The lion’s tale”, calculated later, only attainment of formal fluency has any notable influence (Regression coefficient CR = 0.224) or, more accessorily, the cultural level (CR = 0.12). Conclusions: Attainment of category fluency and patient culture levels has effects on narrativity.

Alzheimer’s Disease, Semiotics, Semantics, Textuality

Hazif-Thomas, C. , Billon, R. and Thomas, P. (2017) Narrativity and Memory Analysis in Alzheimer’s Disease. Open Journal of Psychiatry, 7, 307-317. doi: 10.4236/ojpsych.2017.74026.