Abstract
Positron emission tomography was used to examine the mechanisms of the psychotic phenomenon in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Data from 2 patients with delusions and 2 with hallucinations were compared with those of 5 AD patients without psychosis. The patients with paranoid delusions had diminished relative regional cerebral blood flow (rel-CBF) in the left dorsolateral prefrontal and left medial temporal cortices. The patients with visual hallucinations showed diminished rel-CBF in the right parietal, left medial temporal, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. These findings support the hypothesis that a frontal-temporal abnormality is associated with paranoid delusions in AD. By contrast, visual hallucinations are associated with parietal as well as frontal and temporal lobe dysfunction. In these patients, a left prefrontal-temporal cortex dysfunction appears to be a common denominator for the development of the psychotic phenomenon in AD.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 50-55 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2001 |
| Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Neurology
- Psychiatry and Mental health