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Impaired judgment: a useful symptom of dementia?
- Authors:
- HEAD L., BERRIOS G.E.
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 11(9), September 1996, pp.779-785.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
'Impaired judgment' remains a diagnostic (and predictive) criterion for delirium, dementia and substance-related disorders, and yet its diagnosis and measurement are hampered by the absence of an operational definition. Most of the important research into judgment as a psychological function has been carried out in development and industrial psychology, in the experimental analysis of perception, medical diagnosis and legal decision-making. Models generated in these fields, although important, are only tangentially relevant to 'impaired judgment' as it is met with in clinical practice. This article explores some models of judgment and their application to dementia. It concludes that judgment is not a unitary function but a composite of subroutines. Hence, both low-and high-level analyses are required: the former to explore aetiology, differential diagnosis and treatment, the latter for the assessment of psychosocial competence. A model for the understanding of judgment is also suggested.