Essay on Confirming Alzehimers Disease - 733 Words

Running head: Confirming Alzheimer’s Disease Confirming Alzheimer’s Disease Carissa Davis Walden University Diagnosis and Assessments 6720 Confirming Alzheimer’s Disease The Forgetful Mail Carrier Han’s is a 66 year old retired government worker that has been dealing with issues related to his memory. Han’s retired at the age of 60 because he could no longer perform his duties at work properly. The problems with his work performance had been an issue for five years before his retirement. At the age of 62, he could not remember the way home while leading a hike in an area he was familiar with and knew well. Over time his memory problems have become more noticeable and he even has failed to recognize good friends. He†¦show more content†¦The fact that his memory failure required him to retire early shows a significant impairment in occupational functioning. Han not recognizing his close friends and giving up hobbies shows a significant impairment in social function. There are standardized published rating scales that can be used to measure the severity of impairment (APA, 2000). Criteria D requires cognitive deficits in A1 and A2 are not caused by other central nervous system conditions (1), systemic conditions that are known to cause dementia (2) or substance induced conditions (3). The information that I have would lead me to believe that this clients condition is not related one, two or three of criteria D. Criteria E requires that the deficits do not occur exclusively during the course of delirium, which they do not (APA). Criteria F requires the disturbance not to better accounted for by another disorder (APA). This is an area that I felt another disorder might need to be considered. The fact that Han has begun to speak less and less, given up his hobbies, has not interest in the newspaper or televisions could be cause to diagnosis him with Major Depressive Disorder due to Alzheimer’s with depressive features, 293.83 (APA). This could be listed along with 294.10 Dementia of the Alzheimer’s type with early onset. The early onset needs to be the specify subtype because is me mory failure began before the age of 65. Counseling There is no treatment