Try: Paranoia delusions and hallucinations are some of the more common symptoms of dementia the definitions and examples below may help you identify these symptoms if you suspect that there is a problem you should consider having a physician examine the Care recipient (cr) to get an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan paranoia paranoia is an unrealistic blaming belief paranoia results from damage to the part of the brain that makes judgments and separates facts from fiction crs with paranoia will not connect the unrealistic blaming belief to a realistic belief no matter how many explanations or clarifications are given by the caregivers example the cr can’t find the fifty dollars that she hid in her bible she has forgotten that she took the money out of the bible yesterday and hid it underneath a stock of magazines in her bedroom closet the cr accuses her daughter of taking the money even though the daughter was on vacation out of state for the past two weeks delusions delusions are beliefs that are contrary to fact delusions remain fixed or persistent despite all evidence to the contrary example the married cr firmly states to her husband of 47 years "you are not my real husband " hallucinations hallucinations are sensory experiences that can’t be verified by anyone other than the person experiencing them any sense may be involved but seeing or hearing things is most common occasionally more than one sense may be involved example while assisting her mother with her bath the daughter sees many scratches on her mother’s arms and legs when questioned about these the mother reports that despite her best efforts at cleaning numerous bugs reside in her bedding and attack her at night the mother takes takes her daughter into the bedroom turns back her bed covers and says "see them crawling " the daughter cannot see any bugs information references adapted from understanding difficult behaviors robinson a spencer b & white l 1992
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Categories: Cognitive Intellectual, Emotional Psychological, Medical Physical
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Keywords: Dementia accusing accusatory defensive seeing things hearing things
*This information is listed as a Fact Sheet and is not explicitly medically licensed