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Article
Too Many Choices Confuse Patients With Dementia
Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine
  • Ronald C. Hamdy
  • J. V. Lewis, East Tennessee State University
  • Amber Kinser, East Tennessee State University
  • Audrey Depelteau, East Tennessee State University
  • Rebecca Copeland, East Tennessee State University
  • Tracey Kendall-Wilson, East Tennessee State University
  • Kathleen Whalen, East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2017
Description

Choices are often difficult to make by patients with Alzheimer Dementia. They often become acutely confused when faced with too many options because they are not able to retain in their working memory enough information about the various individual choices available. In this case study, we describe how an essentially simple benign task (choosing a dress to wear) can rapidly escalate and result in a catastrophic outcome. We examine what went wrong in the patient/caregiver interaction and how that potentially catastrophic situation could have been avoided or defused.

Copyright Statement

© The Author(s) 2018. This document was originally published in Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Citation Information
Ronald C. Hamdy, J. V. Lewis, Amber Kinser, Audrey Depelteau, et al.. "Too Many Choices Confuse Patients With Dementia" Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine Vol. 3 (2017) ISSN: 2333-7214
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/amber-kinser/49/