Emotions associated with Alzheimer’s disease in laypersons and health professionals

This study starts with the notion that Alzheimer’s disease shows specific symptoms of cognitive decline as well as different affective-motivational symptoms. These range from increased irritability to a depressed mood, which may also characterize the main features of individual disease representations. The cause and the onset of AD may be perceived as uncontrollable and could increase the perceived threat associated with this disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the intensity of emotions evoked by a vignette describing a person affected with AD using two groups each with different knowledge of the disease – namely a sample of lay persons (n=72) and a sample of health professionals working with persons with persons affected with AD (n=113). The vignette comprised two versions - one describing a woman, the other a man in an early stage of AD showing first specific symptoms - and it was followed by a list of k=16 emotions whose intensity was rated towards the target person. Analyses of variance showed that the intensity of “pro-social feelings” towards the person was significantly rated higher than the intensity of negative feelings. Interactions between the gender of the target person and the understanding of the disease emerged for some emotions. Cluster analysis identified three groups with differing emotion profiles: “Those with high pro-social feelings”, “Those with a low emotional profile” and “Those with mixed emotions”. Findings are discussed with respect to their implications for health care professionals and public perception of AD.