From: hounddog23x@gmail.com   
      
   Published January 11, 2015 By Staff Writer   
      
   Breaking The Law During Late Adulthood Can Be A Sign Of Dementia   
      
      
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   Dementia   
   (Photo : Sean Gallup / Getty Images News) Acts of violence or criminal   
   behavior in late adulthood are manifestations of dementia.   
   A recent report links the criminal behavior of older adult to a degenerative   
   brain disease called dementia or Alzheimer's disease.   
   Criminal behavior in older adults which include theft, sexual advances,   
   trespassing and even traffic violations may be a sign of dementia, a   
   degenerative brain disease in older people, says a research. In fact,   
   according to Dr. Georges Naasan from the    
   Memory and Aging Center and Department of Neurology at the University of   
   California, San Francisco, there were reported first time offenders among   
   older adults who committed petty crimes and these can be associated with the   
   presence of dementia.   
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   For the research, they reviewed the medical records of people who have   
   Alzheimer's disease from 1999 to 2012. A total of 2,397 patients were studied   
   and they reviewed the notes on whether these patients have committed crimes.   
   Word entries like arrest,    
   DUI, shoplift and violence were used to trace their criminal records. A total   
   of 204 (8.5%) patients qualified for their research.   
   Criminal behaviors were often linked to behavioral variant frontotemporal   
   dementia (bvFTD) or primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a type of   
   language-deteriorating dementia. From the people who committed crimes, 64 of   
   them have bvFTD, 42 had Alzheimer's    
   and the others had other types of dementia.   
   Furthermore, the researchers found out more than 6.4% of the group with   
   criminal offenses that have bvFTD manifested physical or verbal violence   
   during the duration of their illness. However, only 3.4% of patients with PPA   
   and 2% of those with Alzheimer'   
   s disease showed those manifestations. For sexual advances, these were higher   
   in men than in women. Urinating in public was higher in men too.   
   Dr. Naasan reiterated that family history of the patient plays a major role in   
   the criminal behavior. If they have a family history of neurodegenerative   
   disease, there might be a link between them committing petty crimes and an   
   underlying problem in    
   their brain.   
   "However, most of these diseases are 'sporadic,' meaning that they occur for   
   no identifiable genetic cause and it is difficult to predict. In general, an   
   early detection of changes in personality, deviation from what constituted a   
   'norm' for a particular    
   individual, should prompt an evaluation for possible brain causes," he added.   
   Frontotemporal degeneration is a type of dementia that affects patients at a   
   very early age. It is characterized by changes in personality, ability to   
   concentrate, social skills, motivation and reasoning. Sometimes, this   
   condition is mistaken for    
   psychiatric disorders. Meanwhile, Alzheimer's disease is the most common type   
   of dementia wherein patients affected with it manifests progressive loss of   
   memory, disorientation, misinterpreting spatial relationships, difficulty in   
   speaking and cognitive    
   impairment. Primary Progressive Aphasia, on the other hand, is characterized   
   by cognitive impairment and progressive loss of the language function.   
      
      
   http://www.youthhealthmag.com/articles/7204/20150111/breaking-th   
   -law-during-late-adulthood-can-be-a-sign-of-dementia.htm   
      
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