Personality change in older adults with dementia: Occurrence and association with severity of cognitive impairment

Edward Helmes, Maria C. Norton, Truls Østbye

Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University, Chapel Hill, USA.
Department of Family Consumer and Human Development, Utah State University, Logan, USA.
Department of Psychology, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.

DOI: 10.4236/aar.2013.21004                

Abstract

Personality change is among criteria for the diagnosis of dementia. We examine first whether personality changes are related to severity of cognitive impairment in a linear or an inverted-U fashion in 1132 demented older people from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA) and 921 unimpaired older people. The proportion with reported change was larger for all measures in the demented group than in the cognitively unimpaired group, and was more consistent with a linear increase in personality change with increasing cognitive impairment than with an inverted-U relationship, as seen in only one variable. In our second (longitudinal) study, we evaluate which aspects of personality change most in dementia; changes in mood and an exaggeration of existing traits were the variables most closely related to the development of dementia.

Keywords

Personality Change; Dementia; Affect; Longitudinal Study

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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