Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Agnosia Interferes With Daily Hygiene In Patients With Dementia, Ronald C. Hamdy, Amber Kinser, Jennifer E. Culp, Tracey Kendall-Wilson, Audrey Depelteau, Rebecca Copeland, Kathleen Whalen

ETSU Faculty Works

Patients with dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease, may not recognize that their clothes are dirty. They may see the food stains and discoloration of the clothes and yet because of their agnosia are unable to integrate these observations and deduce that their clothes are dirty and need to be changed. They will, therefore, resist attempts to get them to change clothes, especially if these clothes happen to be their favorite ones. This often causes caregivers to become frustrated, especially, if it represents a change in the patient’s previous habits of only wearing clean clothes. In this case study, we present a …