Emotions associated with Alzheimer’s disease in laypersons and health professionals

TL;DRAbstract

This study starts with the notion that Alzheimer’s disease shows specific symptoms of cognitive decline as well as different affective-motivational symptoms. These range from increased irritability to a depressed mood, which may also characterize the main features of individual disease representations. The cause and the onset of AD may be perceived as uncontrollable and could increase the perceived threat associated with this disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the intensity of emotions evoked by a vignette describing a person affected with AD using two groups each with different knowledge of the disease – namely a sample of lay persons (n=72) and a sample of health professionals working with persons with persons affected with AD (n=113). The vignette comprised two versions - one describing a woman, the other a man in an early stage of AD showing first specific symptoms - and it was followed by a list of k=16 emotions whose intensity was rated towards the target pe

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