Biomaterial Database

Abandonment fears of persons with Alzheimer's disease attending adult day care. 2001

W Judkins, and K A Roberto

New River Valley Legal Aid Office, Christiansburg, Virginia, USA.

By using participant observation and staff interviews, we examined the phenomenon of abandonment fears in persons with Alzheimer's disease who were frequent attendees of an adult day care center. Two women, who most frequently expressed fears of abandonment, were the primary participants of the study. Their fears stemmed from two sources: contextual confusion, centered on their inability to grasp the concept of attending an adult day care center, and imagined barriers between them and their caregivers. One of the women tended to "recruit" the other woman into her world of insecurity, and hence their friendship actually may have had a detrimental effect on each other's days at the center. Staff members discussed the issue with reluctance and indicated that methods to attempt to change the behavior would be futile.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D003631	Day Care, Medical	Institutional health care of patients during the day. The patients return home at night.	Day Care,Hospitalization, Partial,Care, Day,Medical Day Care,Partial Hospitalization
D005239	Fear	The affective response to an actual current external danger which subsides with the elimination of the threatening condition.	Threat Cues,Threat Sensitivity,Cue, Threat,Fears,Sensitivity, Threat,Threat Cue,Threat Sensitivities
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000368	Aged	A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available.	Elderly
D000544	Alzheimer Disease	A degenerative disease of the BRAIN characterized by the insidious onset of DEMENTIA. Impairment of MEMORY, judgment, attention span, and problem solving skills are followed by severe APRAXIAS and a global loss of cognitive abilities. The condition primarily occurs after age 60, and is marked pathologically by severe cortical atrophy and the triad of SENILE PLAQUES; NEUROFIBRILLARY TANGLES; and NEUROPIL THREADS. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, pp1049-57)	Acute Confusional Senile Dementia,Alzheimer's Diseases,Dementia, Alzheimer Type,Dementia, Senile,Presenile Alzheimer Dementia,Senile Dementia, Alzheimer Type,Alzheimer Dementia,Alzheimer Disease, Early Onset,Alzheimer Disease, Late Onset,Alzheimer Sclerosis,Alzheimer Syndrome,Alzheimer Type Senile Dementia,Alzheimer's Disease,Alzheimer's Disease, Focal Onset,Alzheimer-Type Dementia (ATD),Dementia, Presenile,Dementia, Primary Senile Degenerative,Early Onset Alzheimer Disease,Familial Alzheimer Disease (FAD),Focal Onset Alzheimer's Disease,Late Onset Alzheimer Disease,Primary Senile Degenerative Dementia,Senile Dementia, Acute Confusional,Alzheimer Dementias,Alzheimer Disease, Familial (FAD),Alzheimer Diseases,Alzheimer Type Dementia,Alzheimer Type Dementia (ATD),Alzheimers Diseases,Dementia, Alzheimer,Dementia, Alzheimer-Type (ATD),Familial Alzheimer Diseases (FAD),Presenile Dementia,Sclerosis, Alzheimer,Senile Dementia
D001010	Anxiety, Separation	Anxiety experienced by an individual upon separation from a person or object of particular significance to the individual.	Separation Anxiety Disorder,Anxiety Disorder, Separation,Separation Anxiety