ABSTRACT
Personality changes in older adults with brain disease may be confounded by effects of normal aging. In this cross-sectional study, ratings with the Iowa Scales of Personality Change for 62 healthy older adults (OA-H, aged 60+) were compared to matched older adults with brain diseases (OA-BD). OA-H did not show any significant personality changes from middle age to older adulthood. However, between 10% and 20% of OA-H developed a disturbance in Lack of Stamina, Inflexibility, Lability, and Lack of Insight. Otherwise, the pattern of findings suggesting normal aging effects on personality disturbances in clinical groups are generally minimal.
Acknowledgments
We thank Christopher Nguyen, PhD, for data collection and management and his unfailing good humor, and two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments that substantially improved this paper.
Data availability
The data used for analyses described here are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Disclosure Statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest.