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Biomedical subjects

J Wertheimer

Publications and source records attributed to J Wertheimer.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

[Psychotropic drugs in geriatrics].

As people grow older, side effects due to the modification of pharmacokinetics are the main disadvantage in the use of psychotropic drugs in geriatrics. First, some general rules of prescription must be respected. One will indirectly influence sleep by modifying habits and, if medication becomes necessary, will give preference to chloral hydrate, then to the benzodiazepine byproducts, and, last, to some sedative neuroleptics. Anxiety should be treated mainly with benzodiazepines, taking great care as to the doses. Regarding depression, all the tricyclics and tetracyclics can be used, not forgetting the atropinic effects they have. In case of glaucoma, some substances are free from side effects. In spite of age, resort to lithium is possible with all cautions needed. Neuroleptics will get their best use in confused or delirious states: their main side effects are of extrapyramidal nature.

Aged↗
PubMed1978

[Activity and rehabilitation of senile dementia. Methodological suggestions for an ergotherapy in psychogeriatrics].

The aim of this study is to make clear the conditions of an ergotherapy particularly fit for the aged suffering from senile dementia. It should keep the intellectual instruments in working condition and, eventually, postpone their impairment. The general frame in which theory and experiment are inscribed is the Piaget's theory. Especially the part that concerns the different stages of childhood development of which, one thinks, can be observed the deterioration "in reverse" during the senile dementia impairment processes. Some special hypothesis concern:--the different parts of reality in which relations between patient and society are disturbed --the activities that are connected in a network of relations between the conceptual instruments required to realize these activities --the fact that the steadiness of a particular activity should help to recover another one, thought to be close in the way by which its realization puts into action the same cognitive processes. Thus, we have been able to fix the way of directing a first examination for the taking in charge in ergotherapy; examination that should point out the fields in which the patient can be mobilized (as well from the level where he is as from the investment one can expect in regard to the pleasure or the interest that he shows for a work rather than another). Besides, we tried to represent the channels of activities and their relations, starting from the most elementary one to reach the most complicated one, that is to say the ones that allow us to work on reality. It is in the network of these channels that the proposed activities should find their place in the ergotherapy workshop and their application should permit the readaptation to everyday actions in a progressive way.

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PubMed1977

[Methodology of a long-term study of senile dementia].

The longitudinal method aims to point out phenomena that are bound with time. It is thus particularly fit for the study of ageing as it is proved by many large American research programs. It is also useful to follow during a limited period (short term) the natural history of pathologic entities as degenerative illnesses. After mentioning the fundamental conditions of any longitudinal approach, the program of this study on senile dementia is described. Each case is followed for 2 years, with an examination every 6 months. This later is based on anamnestic, psychiatric, neurologic and functional items as well as on intellectual functions and EEG. A sample of 50 cases should be collected. After a period of 3 years prospection 91 cases were found of which on 31 fitted. The difficulty of recruitement is bound to several factors: the little knowledge of senile dementia frequency in the general population, the poor criteria used in their choices by non-specialists as the directors of homes, the refusals and the withdrawals. Difficulties in establishing contact with patients showing behavioral troubles are underlined as well as cooperative problems with the surroundings. The repetition, at regular periods, of psychological tests sets the problem of learning. In the way of senile dementia it should decrease with the illness evolution thus bringing the overestimation of initial capacities, the gap becomming artifically greater between performances at the beginning and at the end of the observation.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1976

[Reality approach in senile dementia. Fundamental methodologies of occupational therapy in psychogeriatrics].

Occupational therapy in psychogeriatrics has always been practiced empirically, aimed mainly at merely occupying patients. In the light of recent findings from the old age psychological research, a specific method should cope with certain forms of lost intellectual capacities. The purpose of this work is to define as accurately as possible the field of occupational therapy in psychogeriatrics. Three main concepts towards a systematic approach can be proposed: a) Those related to a careful observation of spontaneous activities dealing with the relationship between the patient and the world around him, and which lead to a classification of these activities. b) Concepts related to the most elementary level of intervention in occupational therapy termed as "objective relationship", in other words the construction of the external objective world as opposed to the world of phantasms or magical thought. c) Concepts, at a more sophisticated level, related to the instrumental aspects of traditional occupational therapy. An important distinction should thus be made between local and inclusive constituent parts of an activity.

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PubMed1976

[Neuropsychological study of an autonomous aged population].

In order to adjust the tests used in a study on degenerative dementia a group of independent aged volunteers has been formed and submitted to neuropsychological tests on instrumental functioning. Among them: 25% obtained normal results - 55% showed light instrumental deficiencies which were however not significant of brain damage - 22% had a global impairment of instrumental functions but without memory troubles. This relatively high percentage of impaired old people posed the problem of the normality of the sample chosen. As it mostly came from elderly communities it is possible to think that these gather more or less psychically or socially disfavoured aged people. The frequency of cortical impairments urges to think that they should be followed up to determine whether these symptoms are normal or if these are the signs of a degenerative evolution; in which case the neuropsychological approach would no longer be selective.

Aged↗