Monday, February 27, 2017

"Warped sense of humour could be ‘sign of impending dementia’"

Following last week's "Long-winded speech could be early sign of Alzheimer's disease, says study" a "friend" sent this along.
I can't catch a freaking break this month.

From the Independent, November 2015:

An increasingly dark or twisted sense of humour could be an early warning sign of impending dementia, according to experts.
The results have appeared in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, which was carried out by University College London.

Dr Camilla Clark recruited 48 patients with frontotemporal dementia from their dementia clinic at University College London. The patient's friends and family were asked to rate their friend or relative's enjoyment of different kinds of comedy.

These included slapstick comedy such as Mr Bean, satirical comedy such as Yes, Minister or absurdist comedy such as Monty Python and examples of inappropriate humour.  Dr Clark found that the dementia patients preferred slapstick humour to satirical, when compared to 21 healthy people of a similar age....MORE
The "friend" courteously included the PubMed citation at the U.S. National Institutes of Health:
Altered sense of humor in dementia.