Renaming dementia – an East Asian perspective. (3rd April 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chiu, Helen Fung Kum; Sato, Mitsumoto; Kua, Ee Heok; Lee, Min-Soo; Yu, Xin; Ouyang, Wen-Chen; Yang, Yen Kuang; Sartorius, Norman
• Is Part Of: International psychogeriatrics. Volume 26:Number 6(2014:Jun.)
• Page Start: 885
• Page End: 887
• Publication Date: 2014-04-03
• Subjects: Geriatric psychiatry -- Periodicals; 618.9768905
• DOI: 10.1017/S1041610214000453
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1041-6102

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="text-abstract"> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Worldwide, the number of individuals with dementia is growing in an epidemic manner, with an estimated 35.6 million people affected in 2010 (Prince <italic>et al</italic>., 2013). With the population aging in Asia, dementia care will become a major public health challenge in this region in the coming decades. Over half of the patients with dementia in the world will live in Asia by 2030. In China alone, a recent review of dementia studies showed that there were 9.2 million dementia patients in 2010 (Chan <italic>et al</italic>., 2013). These figures are staggering. In many Asian countries, dementia is regarded as a shameful illness, and the local terms for dementia are derogatory. Dementia carries a stigma that may lead to patients' reluctance in seeking treatment and delay in diagnosis. In addition, local names for dementia frequently conjure up pictures of severe stage of dementia, and may lead to therapeutic nihilism, discouraging mental health professionals from working with elderly patients with dementia. As Asia faces the challenges of a rapidly aging population and provisions of care for growing number of dementia patients, change in local names for dementia has become an issue of attention.</p> </abstract>