THE RELATIONSHIP OF VOCALLY DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR AND PREVIOUS PERSONALITY IN SEVERELY DEMENTED INSTITUTIONALIZED PATIENTS

The aim of this study was to explore the previous personalities of pat ients, their behavior during the course of the disease, and the relati onship between the previous personality and vocally disruptive behavio r of severely demented patients, Twenty-one severely demented patients identified as vocally disruptive and 19 severely demented control sub jects who were matched for gender and ward were studied, A family memb er or close relative who knew the patient very well described the pati ent's personal characteristics from what they judged to be the ''best' ' period in the patient's life and responded, on behalf of the patient , to the 57 items in a modified version of the Eysenck Personality Inv entory. The results of this study can be interpreted to indicate that a previous personality described as introverted, rigid, and with a ten dency to control emotions, as remembered retrospectively by a close fa mily member, may correlate to current disruptive behavior, Despite the limitations of this study the findings indicated that a patient's pre vious personality characteristics need to be taken into consideration because they may partially explain vocal activity and are therefore im portant for the provision of nursing care. Further research has to be performed to highlight the impact of previous personality characterist ics on various kinds of behavior during the course of the disease. Cop yright (C) 1997 by W.B. Saunders Company.