=Senile Dementia= is a form which is incidental to aged persons, and
commences gradually with such symptoms as loss of memory for recent
events, dulness of perception, and inability to fix the attention. Later
on the reasoning powers begin to fail, and finally, memory, reason, and
power of attention, are quite lost, the muscular power and force
remaining intact. In the last stage there is simply bare physical
existence.
=General Paralysis of the Insane, Paralytic Dementia.=--This is a most
interesting form of dementia. It is closely allied to, if not identical
with, locomotor ataxy. Its most prominent and characteristic symptom
consists in delusions of great power, exalted position, and unlimited
wealth--megalomania. The exaltation is universal, and the patient may
maintain at one and the same time that he is running a theatrical
company, that he is the Prince of Wales, and that he is the Almighty.
Moral perversion is a common symptom, and the patient is often guilty of
criminal assaults, indecent exposures, bigamous marriages, and the like.
It is accompanied with progressive bodily and mental decay. Women are
comparatively rarely affected by it, and it generally commences in men
about middle age, and its duration is from a few months to three years.
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