An Elderly Iranian Man with Alzheimers’s Disease Paper Sample

An Elderly Iranian Man with Alzheimers’s Disease Paper Sample

Alzheimer’s disease is a lifelong neurodegenerative disorder that builds up slowly, but eventually, becomes worse. People with this disorder find it difficult to remember current events. In the course of the disorder progression, other symptoms manifest in the patient where some of them are mood swings, language, behavioral concerns, disorientation, along with motivation loss. It would also be possible to tell that a person is vulnerable to the disorder if he or she is unable to manage self-care (Kales et al., 2019).

Looking at the case study involving an 86-year- old Iranian man, his symptoms suggest that he suffers from the disorder. Even his family reported that he was fond of forgetting things and this can be confirmed by looking at the background information. Again, the subjective information, principally, the mini-mental state exam (MMSE) revealed that he had moderate dementia and this relates his mental status exam that showed that his judgment and insights were impaired. This paper presents various decisions that are aimed at promoting his cognitive functioning.

Background Information

The client in the case is a 76-year-old Iranian male identified as Mr. Akkad aged who came to the clinic being accompanied by his son following his strange behavior. The family physician ruled out potential organic basis, and the imaging along with the laboratory tests were normal. His son reported that his father acted strangely that has become intense over the two years.

He added that his father started being disengaged from the religious activities with the family and becomes critical of every member of the family. Unfortunately, what he perceives as being serious becomes his source of ridicule and amusement. His son added that it has been difficult for the client to remember current things to an extent, he finds it difficult to identify the right words in a conversation and would sometimes even change the conversation, promptly.

Decision #1

After analyzing the background, subjective, in conjunction with the objective data of the patient, the PMHNP decided to present the patient with Aricept 5mg orally BID that was to be taken prior to getting to bed. The physician opted for this medication because it is normally used as a startup medication for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and so it is considered as a startup medication alongside being used as a progressive medication.

After subjecting the patient to this decision, the PMHNP hoped to see a slight improvement in the health of the patient in the sense the medication has been designed to reduce the disorder symptoms (Kales et al., 2019). In contrary to the anticipated results, four weeks after adhering the decision, the patient was accompanied by his son back to the clinic who reported that he had not noticed any improvement in his father. His son stated that his father was still disengaged from religious activities.

Furthermore, the confabulation of the patient read 18 out of 30 in the MMSE the same results he scored before being engaged in the decision. Certainly, the patient did not respond to the medication which suggests nonalignment between the anticipated results with the real outcome.

Decision #2

Following the results of the previous decision, it would be necessary for the physician to introduce the patient to a new decision which, specifically, entailed increasing the Aricept dosage to Aricept 10mg orally BID. So, in this decision, the physician augmented the drug dosage for the patient to Aricept 10mg orally BID that was to be taken prior going to bed. By increasing the drug dosage, I hoped the health condition of the patient would improve gradually as the patient may even stay for some months for him to recover from the illness (Nowrangi, Lyketsos, & Rosenberg, 2015).

This nearly matched the real results because the outcome showed that the patient is tolerating the medication only that his son is still not comfortable with the condition of his father. Nevertheless, his son reports that the patient has started attending religious services, an act that makes his family happy. This suggests that the patient has started responding to the medication.

Decision #3

After learning about the potentiality of the previous decision, I felt that it is necessary to maintain the same approach and this will entail maintaining Aricept 10mg orally BID for the patient. When using Aricept pharmacological agent to treat a patient, the physicians are recommended to present a maximum of Aricept 10mg orally BID as no piece of evidence has confirmed about the potentiality of Aricept on a patient when its dosage exceeds Aricept 10mg orally BID.

Increasing the dosage beyond the recommended drug dosage may see the patient suffer some side effects associated with the drug (Berry & Amp, 2017). Aft