Hostname: page-component-6b989bf9dc-lb7rp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-14T18:22:26.573Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dementia in old age: an anthropological perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

P. A. Pollitt
P. A. Pollitt*
Affiliation:
NHMRC Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr P. Pollitt NHMRC Social Psychiatry Research UnitThe Australian National University3 Liversidge StreetCanberraACT 0200Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

This paper examines the assumption that dementia in old age is a universal phenomenon that will vary in its prevalence and manifestation because of social and cultural factors. It finds that while researchers have been successful in demonstrating the commonality of dementia, they have been less successful in showing whether or not it varies across cultures and between social and ethnic groupings. The inconclusiveness of findings may, in part, be a function of diagnostic differences and the research methodologies employed.

New instruments and measures are being devised to overcome these problems. However, the sociocultural context in which dementia occurs and the meaning of the disorder to those involved (as sufferers and caregivers) are often missing dimensions. In particular, there is little knowledge about how the disorders of old age in non-Western settings are experienced and understood. In this respect anthropology has a special contribution to make to research on dementia.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 5 , September 1996 , pp. 1061 - 1074
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1980, 1988). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (revised). American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Andrews, G. R., Esterman, A. J., Braunack-Mayer, A. J. & Rungie, C. M. (1986). Ageing in the Western Pacific: A Four-country Study. World Health Organization: Manila.Google Scholar
Apt, N. A. (1990). The role of the family in the care of the elderly in developing countries. In Improving the Health of Older People (ed. Kane, R. L., Evans, J. Grimley and Macfadyen, D.), pp. 361–379. Published on behalf of the World Health Organization by Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Balikci, A. (1970). The Netsilik Eskimo. Natural History Press: New York.Google Scholar
Barker, J. C. (1990). Between humans and ghosts: the decrepit elderly in a Polynesian society. In The Cultural Context of Aging (ed. Sokolovsky, J.), pp. 295–313. J. Bergen & Garvey: New York.Google Scholar
Bayles, K. A. & Kazniak, A. W. (1987). Communication and Cognition in Normal Aging and Dementia. Little Brown Co: Boston.Google Scholar
Beall, C. M. & Eckert, J. K. (1986). Measuring functional capacity cross-culturally. In New Methods for Old-Age Research: Strategies for Studying Diversity (ed. Fry, C. L. and Keith, J. K.), pp. 21–55. Bergin & Garvey: Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Beardsall, L., Barkley, C. & Sullivan, A. (1992). The response of elderly community residents to request for brain donation: an interim report. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 7, 199–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, D., Hershkowitz, M., Maidler, N., Rabinowitz, M. & Floru, S. (1994). Psychopathology and cognitive decline in dementia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 182, 701–703.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berndt, R. M. & Berndt, C. H. (1951). The concept of abnormality in Australian Aboriginal society. In Psychoanalysis and Culture: Essays in Honour of Geza Robeim (ed. Wilbur, G. B. and Muensterbeign, W.), pp. 75–89. International Universities Press: New York.Google Scholar
Biernoff, D. (1984). Psychiatric and anthropological interpretations of ‘aberrant’ behaviour in an Aboriginal community. In Body, Land and Spirit: Health and Healing in Aboriginal Society (ed. Reid, J.), pp. 139–153. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia, Queensland.Google Scholar
Blakemore, K. (1990). Does age matter? The case of old age in minority ethnic groups. In Becoming and Being Old: Sociological Approaches to Later Life (ed. Bytheway, B., Keil, T., Allett, P. and Bryman, A.), pp. 158–175. Sage: London.Google Scholar
Blessed, G., Tomlinson, B. E. & Roth, M. (1968). The association between quantitative measures of dementia and senile changes in the cerebal grey matter of elderly subjects. British Journal of Psychiatry 114, 797–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blurton-Jones, N. & Konner, M. J. (1976). Kung knowledge of animal behaviour. In Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers: Studies of the !Kung San and their Neighbours (ed. Lee, R. B. and DeVore, I.), pp. 326–348. Harvard University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bond, J. (1992). The medicalisation of dementia. Journal of Aging Studies 6, 397–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brayne, C. (1993). Research and Alzheimer's disease: an epidemiological perspective. Psychological Medicine 23, 287–296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, H. G. (1984). Lay perceptions of autopsy. Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 108, 446–448.Google ScholarPubMed
Burns, A., Jacoby, R. & Levy, R. (1990 a). Psychiatric phenomena in Alzheimer's disease I–IV, British Journal of Psychiatry 157, 72–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, A., Jacoby, R., Luthert, P. & Levy, R. (1990 b). Cause of death in Alzheimer's disease Age and Ageing 19, 341–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burns, A., Reith, M., Jacoby, R. & Levy, R. (1990 c). ‘How to do it’ – obtaining consent for autopsy in Alzheimer's disease. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 5, 283–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandra, V., Ganguli, M., Ratcliff, G., Pandav, R., Sharma, S., Gilby, J., Belle, S., Ryan, C., Baker, C., Seaberg, E., DeKosky, S. & Nath, L. (1994). Studies of the epidemiology of dementia: comparisons between developed and developing countries. Aging: Clinical and Experimental Research 6, 307–321.Google ScholarPubMed
Cohler, B. J., Groves, L., Borden, W. & Lawrence, L. (1989). Caring for family members with Alzheimer's disease. In Alzheimer's Disease Treatment and Family Stress: Directions for Research (ed. Light, E. and Lebowitz, B. D.), pp. 50–105. US Department of Health and Human Services: Maryland.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. K., Mungas, D. & Weiler, P. G. (1990). Relation of cognitive status and abnormal behaviors in Alzheimer's disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 38, 867–870.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Copeland, J. R. M., Kelleher, M. J., Kellet, J. M., Gourlay, A. J., Gurland, B. J., Fleiss, J. M. & Sharpe, L. (1976). A semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of diagnosis and mental state in the elderly: the Geriatric Mental State Schedule: development and reliability. Psychological Medicine 6, 439–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordner, S. M. (1992). The autopsy in decline. Medical Journal of Australia 156, 448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Counts, D. A. & Counts, D. R. (1985 a). Introduction: Linking concepts aging and gender, aging and death. In Aging and its Transformations: Moving toward Death in Pacific Societies (ed. Counts, D. A. and Counts, D. R.), pp. 1–24. University Press of America: Lanham.Google Scholar
Counts, D. A. & Counts, D. R. (1985 b). I'm not dead yet! Aging and death: process and experience in Kaliai. In Aging and its Transformations: Moving toward Death in Pacific Societies (ed. Counts, D. A. and Counts, D. R.), pp. 131–155. University Press of America: Lanham.Google Scholar
Crystal, H., Dickson, D., Fuld, P., Masur, D., Scott, R., Mehler, M., Masdeu, J., Kawas, C., Aronson, M. & Wolfson, L. (1988). Clinico-pathologic studies in dementia: nondemented subjects with pathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 38, 1682–1687.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dissenbacher, H. (1989). Neglect, abuse and the taking of life in old people's homes. Ageing and Society 9, 61–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumont, M. P. (1993). Book review. Social Science and Medicine 36, 711–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, D. A. (1992). Alzheimer's disease – where will we find the etiologic clues? Challenges and opportunities in cross-cultural studies. Ethnicity and Stress 2, 321–325.Google ScholarPubMed
Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E. & McHugh, P. R. (1975). ‘Mini-Mental State’: a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research 12, 189–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortes, M. (1984). Age, generation, and social structure. In Age and Anthropological Theory (ed. Kertzer, D. I. and Keith, J.), pp. 99–122. Cornell University Press: Ithaca.Google Scholar
Fox, D. (1994). How can the family help itself alleviate the crisis in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait community?In Alzheimer's Association Australia, 4th National Conference – A Family Crisis: The Positive and Negative Sides of Caring, pp. 243–247. Sydney, Australia 10–13 April 1994.Google Scholar
Fox, P. (1989). From senility to Alzheimer's disease: the rise of the Alzheimer's disease movement. Milbank Quarterly 67, 58–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fuld, P. A., Muramoto, O., Blau, A., Westbrook, L. & Katzman, R. (1988). Cross-cultural and multi-ethnic dementia evaluation by mental status and memory testing. Cortex 24, 511–519.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gajdusek, D. C. (1990). Subacute spongiform encephalies. In Virology, vol. 2 (ed. Fields, B. N. and Knipe, D. M.), pp. 2289–2324. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Ganguli, M. & Ratcliff, G. (1995). A Hindi version of the MMSE: the development of a cognitive screening instrument for a largely illiterate rural elderly population in India. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 10, 367–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geller, S. A. (1984). Religious attitudes and the autopsy. Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 108, 494–496.Google ScholarPubMed
Gilhooly, M. (1984). The social dimensions of senile dementia. In Psychological Approaches to the Care of the Elderly (ed. Hanley, I. and Hodge, J.), pp. 88–135. Croom Helm: London.Google Scholar
Glascock, A. P. (1990). By any other name, it is still killing: a comparison of the treatment of the elderly in America and other societies. In The Cultural Context of Aging (ed. Sokolovsky, J.), pp. 43–56. Bergen & Garvey: New York.Google Scholar
Glascock, A. P. & Feinman, S. L. (1986). Treatment of the aged in nonindustrial societies. In New Methods for Old-Age Research: Strategies for Studying Diversity (ed. Fry, C. L. and Keith, J. K.), pp. 281–296. Bergin & Garvey: Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Good, B. J. (1994). Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Good, B. & Kleinman, A. (1985). Epilogue: culture and depression. In Culture and Depression: Studies in the Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Psychiatry of Affect and Disorder (ed. Kleinman, A. and Good, B.), pp. 491–505. University of California Press: Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimley Evans, J. (1990). How the elderly are different. In Improving the Health of Older People (ed. Kane, R. L., Evans, J. Grimley and Macfadyen, D.), pp. 50–68. Published on behalf of the World Health Organization by Oxford University Press: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gubrium, J. (1986). Oldtimers and Alzheimer's: The Descriptive Organisation of Senility. JAI Press Inc: Connecticut.Google Scholar
Hall, K., Ogunnyi, A., Hendrie, H., Osuntokun, B., Hui, S., Unverzagt, F. & Baiyewu, O. (1994). Community screening for dementia in Indianapolis and Ibadan, Nigeria. Neurobiology of Aging 15, suppl. 1, p. S42.Google Scholar
Hart, C. W. M., Pilling, A. R. & Goodale, J. C. (1988). The Tiwi of North Australia. Holt, Rinehart and Winston: New York.Google Scholar
Henderson, A. S. (1993). Dementia: World Mental Health Situation Report. Prepared for the Division of Mental Health, World Health Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar
Hendrie, H., Hall, K., Pillay, N., Rodgers, D., Prince, C., Norton, J., Brittain, H., Nath, A., Blue, A., Kaufert, J., Shelton, P., Postl, B. & Osuntokun, B. (1993). Alzheimer's disease is rare in Cree. International Psychogeriatrics 5, 5–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendrie, H., Osuntokun, B., Hall, K., Ogunniyi, A., Farlow, M., Gurege, O., Unverzagt, F., Baiyewu, O., Hui, S. and the Indianapolis/Ibadan Team (1994). A comparison of the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in community dwelling residents of Ibadan, Nigeria and Indianapolis, USA. Neurobiology of Aging 15, Supplement 1.Google Scholar
Henry, J. P. (1986). Relation of psychosocial factors to the senile dementias. In The Dementias: Policy and Management (ed. Gilhooly, M.), pp. 38–65. Prentice-Hall: New Jersey.Google Scholar
Holmes, L. D. (1983). Other Cultures, Elder Years. Burgess Publishing Company: Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Honda, Y. (1983). DSM-III in Japan. In International Perspectives on DSM-III (ed. Spitzer, R. L., Williams, B. W. and Skodol, A. E.), pp. 185–201. American Psychiatric Press: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Huppert, F. A. & Brayne, C. (1994). What is the relationship between dementia and normal aging? In Dementia and Normal Aging. (ed. Huppert, F. A., Brayne, C. & O'Connor, D. W.), pp. 3–11. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jorm, A. F. (1990). The Epidemiology of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders. Chapman and Hall: London.Google Scholar
Jorm, A. F. (1991). Cross-national comparisons of the occurrence of Alzheimer's and vascular dementias. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 240, 218–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jorm, A. F. & Henderson, A. S. (1985). Possible improvements of the diagnostic criteria for dementia in DSM-III. British Journal of Psychiatry 147, 394–399.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jorm, A. F. & Mackinnon, A. (1994). Psychogeriatric Assessment Scales. ANUTECH: Canberra.Google Scholar
Kammant, P., Sutthichai, J., Chitr, S., Srichitra, C. & Shah, E. (1991). Prevalence of dementia in an urban slum population in Thailand: validity of screening methods. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 6, 639–646.Google Scholar
Kearins, J. (1985). Cross-cultural misunderstandings in education. In Cross-cultural Encounters: Communication and Mis-communication (ed. Pride, J. B.), pp. 65–80. River Seine Publications: Melbourne.Google Scholar
Kearins, J. (1989). Measurement and direction knowledge in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children of Western Australia. In Heterogeneity in Cross Cultural Psychology (ed. Keots, D. M., Munro, D. & Mann, L.), pp. 274–283. Swets & Zeitlinger: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Keith, J. & Kertzer, D. I. (1984). Introduction. In Age and Anthropological Theory (ed. Kertzer, D. I. and Keith, J.), pp. 19–61. Cornell University Press: Ithaca.Google Scholar
Kiefer, C. (1987). Care of the aged in Japan. In Health, Illness and Medical Care in Japan (ed. Norbeck, E. and Lock, M.), pp. 89–109. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu.Google Scholar
Kitwood, T. (1987). Dementia and its pathology: in brain, mind or society? Free Associations 8, 81–93.Google Scholar
Kitwood, T. (1988). The technical, the personal, and the framing of dementia. Social Behaviour 3, 161–179.Google Scholar
Kitwood, T. (1990). The dialectics of dementia – with particular reference to Alzheimer's disease. Ageing and Society 10, 177–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitwood, T. (1993). Person and process in dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 8, 541–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleiner, R. J. (1995). Discussion of J. M. Murphy: ‘Anthropology and psychiatric epidemiology’. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 90, 58–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinman, A. (1988). Rethinking Psychiatry: From Cultural Category to Personal Experience. The Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Leff, J. (1990). The ‘New Cross-Cultural Psychiatry’. A case of the baby and the bathwater. British Journal of Psychiatry 156, 305–307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, R. I. (1973). Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands. University of Chicago Press: ChicagoGoogle Scholar
Li, G., Shen, Y. C., Chen, C. H., Zhao, Y. W., Li, S. R. & Lu, M. (1989). An epidemiological survey of age-related dementia in an urban area of Beijing. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 79, 557–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lien, O. (1993). Attitudes of the Vietnamese community towards mental illness. Australasian Psychiatry 1, 110–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Littlewood, R. (1990). From categories to contexts: a decade of the ‘New Cross-Cultural Psychiatry’. British Journal of Psychiatry 156, 308–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lock, M. (1987). Protests of a Good Wife and Wise Mother: the medicalisation of distress in Japan. In Health, Illness and Medical Care in Japan (ed. Norbeck, E. and Lock, M.), pp. 130–156. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu.Google Scholar
Loewenstein, D. A., Ardila, A., Rosselli, M., Hayden, S., Duara, R., Berkowitz, N., Linn-Fuentes, P., Mintzer, J., Norville, M. & Eisdorfer, C. (1992). A comparative analysis of functional status among Spanish- and English-speaking patients with dementia. Journal of Gerontology 47, 389–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loewenstein, D. A., Argüelles, T., Barker, W. W. & Duara, R. (1993). A comparative analysis of neuropsychological test performance of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking patients with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Gerontology 48, 142–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loewenstein, D. A., Argüelles, T., Argüelles, S. & Linn-Fuentes, P. (1994). Potential cultural bias in the neuropsychological assessment of the older adult. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 16, 623–629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyman, K. A. (1989). Bringing the social back in: a critique of the biomedicalisation of dementia. Gerontologist 29, 597–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macfadyen, D. (1990). International demographic trends. In Improving the Health of Older People: A World View (ed. Kane, R. L., Evans, J. Grimley and Macfadyen, D.), pp. 19–29. Published on behalf of the World Health Organization by Oxford University Press: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGregor, I. & Bell, J. (1993). Voyage of discovery. Nursing Times 89, 29–31.Google ScholarPubMed
McRoberts, R. (1990). Counting at Pularumpi. The Aboriginal Child at School: A National Journal for Teachers of Aborigines 18, 19–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maeda, D., Teshima, K., Sugisawa, H. & Asakura, Y. S. (1989). Ageing and Health in Japan, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 4, 143–162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maxwell, R. J., Silverman, P. & Maxwell, E. K. (1982). The movement for gerontocide. Studies in Third World Societies 22, 67–84.Google Scholar
Mendez, M. F., Martin, R. J., Smyth, K. A. & Whitehouse, P. J. (1990). Psychiatric symptoms associated with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neuropsychiatry 2, 28–33.Google ScholarPubMed
Merriam, A. E., Aronson, M. K., Gaston, P., Wey, S. L. & Katz, I. (1988). The psychiatric symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. American Geriatrics Society 36, 7–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, B., Glasser, M. & Rubin, S. (1992). A paradox of medicalization: physicians, families and Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Aging Studies 6, 135–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortimer, J. A. (1990). Epidemiology of Dementia: cross-cultural comparison. In Advances in Neurology. Alzheimer's Disease, vol 51 (ed. Wurtman, R. J., Corkin, S., Crowdon, J H. and Ritter-Walker, E.), pp. 27–33. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Murphy, E. (1990). Brains for biochemical research. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 5, 281–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, J. M. (1994). Anthropology and psychiatric epidemiology. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 90, 48–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, L. (1985). The Australian Year: A Chronicle of our Seasons and Celebrations. Angus & Robertson: North Ryde, NSW.Google Scholar
O'Connor, D. W., Pollitt, P. A., Hyde, J. B., Brook, C. P. B., Reiss, B. B. & Roth, M. (1988). Do general practitioners miss dementia in elderly patients? British Medical Journal 297, 1107–1110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, D. W., Pollitt, P. A., Brook, C. P. B. & Reiss, B. B. (1989 a). The validity of informant histories in a community study of dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 4, 203–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, D. W., Pollitt, P. A., Treasure, F. P., Brook, C. P. B. & Reiss, B. B. (1989 b). The influence of education, social class and sex on Mini-Mental scores. Psychological Medicine 19, 771–776.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ogunniyi, A. O., Lekwauwa, U. B. & Osuntokun, B. O. (1991). Influence of education and aspects of cognitive functions in non-demented elderly Nigerians. Neuroepidemiology 10, 246–250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ogunniyi, A. O., Osuntokun, B. O., Lekwauwa, U. B. & Falope, Z. F. (1992). Rarity of dementia (by DSM-III-R) in an urban community in Nigeria. East African Medical Journal 69, 64–68.Google Scholar
Osuntokun, B. O., Ogunniyi, A. O., Lekwauwa, G. U. & Oyediran, A. B. O. O. (1991). Epidemiology of age-related dementia in the third world and aetiological clues of Alzheimer's disease. Tropical Geographical Medicine 43, 345–351.Google ScholarPubMed
Park, J., Ko, H. J., Park, Y. N. & Jung, C-H. (1994). Dementia among the elderly in a rural Korean community. British Journal of Psychiatry 164, 796–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollitt, P. A., O'Connor, D. W. & Anderson, I. (1989). Mild dementia: perceptions and problems. Ageing and Society 9, 261–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, B. E. & Robinson, M. B. (1987). Protected Persons and their Property in New South Wales. The Law Book Company: Sydney.Google Scholar
Rajkumar, S., Kumar, S. & Thara, R. (1993). Prevalence of dementia in the community: a rural-urban comparison from Madras, India. World Psychiatric Association. Book of Abstracts. Changing the Course and Outcome of Mental Disorder: The Contribution of Epidemiology, p. 119. World Psychiatric Association: Groningen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Reser, J. (1991). Aboriginal mental health: conflicting cultural perspectives. In The Health of Aboriginal Australia (ed. Reid, J. and Trompf, P.), pp. 218–291. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia, Qld.Google Scholar
Robertson, A. (1990). The politics of Alzheimer's disease. International Journal of Health Services 20, 429–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roth, M. (1977). Recent progress in the psychiatry of old age and its bearing on certain problems of psychiatry in early life. Biological Psychiatry 5, 102–125.Google Scholar
Roth, M. (1994). The relationship between dementia and normal aging of the brain. In Dementia and Normal Aging. (ed. Huppert, F. A., Brayne, C. and O'Connor, D. W.), pp. 57–76. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Roth, M., Tym, E., Mountjoy, C. Q., Huppert, F. A., Hendrie, H., Verma, S. & Goddard, R. (1986). CAMDEX: A standardised instrument for the diagnosis of mental disorder in the elderly with special reference to the early detection of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry 149, 698–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royal College of Pathologists of Australia. (1994). Autopsy and the use of tissues removed at autopsy. Medical Journal of Australia 160, 442–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sankar, A. (1984). ‘It's just old age’: old age as a diagnosis in American and Chinese medicine. In Age and Anthropological Theory (ed. Kertzer, D. I. and Keith, J.), pp. 250–280. Cornell University Press: Ithaca.Google Scholar
Scaletta, N. M. (1985). Death by sorcery: the social dynamics of dying in Bairiai, West New Britain. In Aging and its Transformations; Moving toward Death in Pacific Societies (ed. Counts, D. A. and Counts, D. R.), pp. 223–247. University Press of America: Lanham.Google Scholar
Seltzer, B. & Buswell, A. (1994). Psychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease: mental status examination versus caregiver report. Gerontologist 34, 103–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simmons, L. (1960). Aging in preindustrial societies. In Handbook of Social Gerontology (ed. Tibbitts, C.), pp. 62–91. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.Google Scholar
Stafford, P. B. (1992). The nature and culture of Alzheimer's disease. Semiotica 92, 167–176.Google Scholar
Sultzer, D. L., Levin, H. S., Mahler, M. E., High, W. M. & Cummings, J. L. (1992). Assessment of cognitive, psychiatric, and behavioral disturbances in patients with dementia: the neurobehavioral rating scale. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 40, 549–555.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sultzer, D. L., Levin, H. S., Mahler, M. E., High, W. M. & Cummings, J. L. (1993). A comparison of psychiatric symptoms in vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. American Journal of Psychiatry 150, 1806–1812.Google ScholarPubMed
Sung, K-T. (1990). A new look at filial piety: ideals and practices of family-centered parent care in Korea. Gerontologist 30, 610–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veras, R. P. & Murphy, E. (1994). The mental health of older people in Rio de Janeiro. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 9, 285–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wakeford, R. E. & Stepney, R. (1989). Obstacles to organ donation. British Journal of Surgery 76, 435–439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waring, S. C., Esteban-Santillan, C., Teng, E., Petersen, R. C., O'Brien, P. C. & Kurland, L. T. (1994). Evaluation of a modified version of the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) for assessment of dementia in elderly Chamorros on Guam.Fourth International Conference on Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiology of Aging 15, S43.Google Scholar
White, L. R. (1992). Towards a program of cross-cultural research on the epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease. Current Science 63, 456–469.Google Scholar
White, L. R., Ross, G. W., Petrovitch, H., Masaki, K., Chiu, D. & Teng, E. (1994). Estimation of the sensitivity and specificity of a dementia screening test in a population-based survey. Neurobiology of Aging 15, Suppl. 1, S42.Google Scholar
Wilkin, D., Mashiah, J. & Jolley, D. J. (1978). Changes in behavioural characteristics of elderly population of local authority homes and long-stay hospital wards, 1976–77. British Medical Journal 8, 1274–1276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfe, N., Imai, Y., Otani, C., Nagatani, H., Hasegawa, K., Sugimoto, K., Tanaka, Y., Kuroda, Y., Glosser, G. & Albert, M. L. (1992). Criterion validity of the cross-cultural cognitive examination in Japan. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences 47, P289–P291.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (1990). ICD-10 1990 Draft of Chapter V. Categories F00-F99. Mental and Behavioural Disorders (including disorders of psychological development). Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines. WHO, Division of Mental Health: Geneva.Google Scholar
Wragg, R. E. & Jeste, D. V. (1989). Overview of depression and psychosis in Alzheimer's disease. American Journal of Psychiatry 146, 577–587.Google ScholarPubMed
Zann, S. (1994). Identification of Support, Education and Training Needs of Rural/Remote Health Care Service Providers Involved in Dementia Care. Rural Health, Support, Education and Training (RHSET). Northern Regional Health Authority: Vincent, Queensland.Google Scholar