ABSTRACT
Part I of our book Broken Connections. Alzheimer’s Disease contains a description of various aspects of Alzheimer’s disease (Part I: Origin and Course). This description shows how in the course of this illness a preliminary stage and four successive stages of ever increasing loss of previously learned activities and mastered skills can be distinguished. One of the characteristics of this disease is the gradual disorganization and finally the total loss of initiative and purposive movement. This leads to increasing personal neglect. The caregiver wants to keep the patient active as long as possible by involving him as much as he can in all activities. But how much is ‘as much as possible’? What determines whether and to what extent the patient in a specific phase can still actively participate in an activity? That is mainly determined by the complexity of that activity. All activities which require insight, overview, preparation and assessment soon become impossible. Later on the simpler actions also become too difficult.
