Course Outline
Is it inevitable? Does everyone who lives long enough eventually develop dementia? Might dementia be prevented, modified, or even reversed?
Aging is as natural as leaves changing color at summer’s end. We may be powerless against time and occurrences of nature, but we’re not helpless when it comes to maturing with health and grace. Tending to good health throughout life results in aging with dignity.
In Autumn Leaves, Dr. Steven Rubin, a psychiatrist specializing in geriatric medicine, offers common-sense insights into the biological and psychological changes that confront us all, beginning in the middle years and progressing through late life, a stage which the author has termed “gerolescence.”
Who gets dementia, who doesn’t, and why? Autumn Leaves not only addresses intellectual, emotional, and behavioral declines, but also provides a framework for evaluating, correctly diagnosing, and treating them, with and without medications. You’ll learn how to approach and manage the losses, challenges, and opportunities that accompany the aging process.
Steven Rubin, M.D., has written a book that looks at growing older, with and without dementia. Autumn Leaves asks – and answers – the crucial question, “How do you want to live your remaining seasons?”
- The Genesis and Exodus of Life, Death, and Dementia
- The Forest Dementia
- Ornaments and Appendages
- Sleep and Dementia
- Gerolescence
- The S.Wa.N.
- Longevity’s Rainbow
- Assessing Dementia
- Medicating Dementia: Polygeropsychopharmacology
Learning Objectives
After completing this course you’ll be able to:
- Describe how the author compares humans to a tree.
- Describe dementia.
- State the first sign of cognitive decline.
- Define agnosia, aphasia, and apraxia.
- Describe the three stages of dementia.
- State the medical cause of most dementia.
- State the physical cause of Alzheimer’s dementia.
- Describe briefly several other types of dementia.
- Compare dementia and deliurium.
- State the most common cause of delirium.
- Define sundowning and describe the treatment.
- Describe failure to thrive.
- State problems that occur from lack of oxygen during sleep.
- List the non-pharmalogic interventions to improve sleep.
- Describe several medications to promote sleep.