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“Donald Trump’s … over-the-top rhetoric is not new and, for more than 400 licensed medical professionals, it’s not the most troubling aspect of Trump’s public performances.
“They see evidence that the former president, at 77, is suffering from ‘probable dementia’ so they have signed their names … to an online statement asserting that grave concern.”
“They see evidence that the former president, at 77, is suffering from ‘probable dementia’ so they have signed their names … to an online statement asserting that grave concern.”
“In a long series of testimonials, doctors and other professionals cite Trump’s use of incorrect words or jumbled words, suggesting a condition known as paraphasia, a common indicator of dementia.”
https://twitter.com/baltimoresun/status/1770193165284175996
“So how do [Dr. John] Gartner and the dozens of professionals he consulted discern signs of dementia?
“‘When you are literally unable to form words and what you’re saying is so incomprehensible that it’s impossible for someone to understand what you are saying, that’s not rambling,’ says Gartner. ‘Those are serious signs of dementia. If you saw them in a relative, you would run, not walk, to a specialist to get them tested and start thinking about long-term care.’”
“‘When you are literally unable to form words and what you’re saying is so incomprehensible that it’s impossible for someone to understand what you are saying, that’s not rambling,’ says Gartner. ‘Those are serious signs of dementia. If you saw them in a relative, you would run, not walk, to a specialist to get them tested and start thinking about long-term care.’”
“‘The evidence for dementia in Donald Trump has become overwhelming,’ writes Dr. Lance Dodes, a psychiatrist and retired professor of the Harvard Medical School. ‘Unlike normal aging, which is characterized by forgetting names or words, Trump repeatedly shows something very different: confusion about reality.’”
“Suzanne Lachman, a New York psychologist, posted this: ‘[Trump will] begin a sentence, and then seemingly forget how the sentence began and invent something in the middle, and then go off on a tangent that results in an incomprehensible word salad. This is behavior we observe frequently in patients who have dementia.’”
“‘If this guy presented in my office with the symptoms we observe in his public appearances, I’d refer him at once to a neurologist for a full workup,’ wrote John Biggs, a social worker and retired psychotherapist who was based at Sheppard Pratt for 30 years. ‘I wouldn’t write him an OK-to-return-to-work note, much less declare him fit to occupy the country’s highest office.’”
“The Alzheimer’s Society last month published an essay saying diagnosis at a distance is unethical and ‘usually wrong.’
“Gartner strongly disagrees. Trump and Biden are, next to Taylor Swift, the most exposed people in the country. There are ample ways to observe their behavior and hear their words every day. ‘In real medicine,’ Gartner argues, ‘thousands of psychiatrists make diagnoses every day in clinical practice based on observation of behavior, history and informant reports. Research shows all of those methods are actually more accurate and reliable than a clinical interview.’
“The greatest ethical responsibility, he says, is the duty to warn, and at a critical time for the nation.”
“Gartner strongly disagrees. Trump and Biden are, next to Taylor Swift, the most exposed people in the country. There are ample ways to observe their behavior and hear their words every day. ‘In real medicine,’ Gartner argues, ‘thousands of psychiatrists make diagnoses every day in clinical practice based on observation of behavior, history and informant reports. Research shows all of those methods are actually more accurate and reliable than a clinical interview.’
“The greatest ethical responsibility, he says, is the duty to warn, and at a critical time for the nation.”
“The Alzheimer’s Society last month published an essay saying diagnosis at a distance is unethical and ‘usually wrong.’
“Gartner strongly disagrees. Trump and Biden are, next to Taylor Swift, the most exposed people in the country. There are ample ways to observe their behavior and hear their words every day. ‘In real medicine,’ Gartner argues, ‘thousands of psychiatrists make diagnoses every day in clinical practice based on observation of behavior, history and informant reports. Research shows all of those methods are actually more accurate and reliable than a clinical interview.’
“The greatest ethical responsibility, he says, is the duty to warn, and at a critical time for the nation.”
“Gartner strongly disagrees. Trump and Biden are, next to Taylor Swift, the most exposed people in the country. There are ample ways to observe their behavior and hear their words every day. ‘In real medicine,’ Gartner argues, ‘thousands of psychiatrists make diagnoses every day in clinical practice based on observation of behavior, history and informant reports. Research shows all of those methods are actually more accurate and reliable than a clinical interview.’
“The greatest ethical responsibility, he says, is the duty to warn, and at a critical time for the nation.”
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