UNAWARENESS OF SOCIAL-INTERACTION AND EMOTIONAL CONTROL DEFICITS IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

The purpose of this study was to examine unawareness of deficit in Alz heimer's disease (AD) in a previously unexplored functional domain: so cial interaction and emotional control competency. Impairment of aware ness was measured by calculating the degree to which patients and thei r caregivers disagreed on ratings of patient functioning. To assess po tential underlying mechanisms or associated features of social/emotion al unawareness, a regression equation examining disease and demographi c correlates was created. In addition, to provide a basis of compariso n for the social/emotional domain, unawareness of deficit was also ass essed in two previously examined domains of functioning (i.e., cogniti ve and self-care competency). Results revealed that, as compared to ca regivers, AD-diagnosed patients overestimated their social/emotional c ompetency but to a lesser extent than they overestimated cognitive and self-care competencies. Regression analysis suggested that impaired a wareness of social interaction and emotional control deficits was posi tively correlated with dementia severity and negatively correlated wit h education.