Department of Sociology & Anthropology, GUB

(Student’s Assignment)

Semester: Summer 2022

Case Study of a Psychotic Disorder of One

of My Relatives that I Observed Closely

Submitted by
Student ID: 192018004

Course Info
Course Title: Social Psychology
Course Code: SOC 2005
Course Teacher: Md. Samiul Islam, Asst. Professor

(For Teacher’s use only)

Marks Obtained (out of 10):
Knowledge Skills Attitude
Assignment, Summer 2022 SOC 2005: Social Psychology
Department of Sociology & Anthropology

Case Study: Memory Loss of One of My Relatives

Zakia Shahjahan is my distant mother-in-law (the wife of the maternal uncle of my wife). She
is 75 now. She and her husband (‘mama’ of my wife) had been living with us over three years.
The uncle died in this February. She is still living with us. More than seven months have been
passed since her husband died, but She cannot remember that event. She looks for her husband
every now and then, sometimes asks to call him or bring him back from hospital. When we tell
her that he is dead long ago, she blames us of not telling it to her earlier and buried him without
her knowledge although she was present in the whole process. She cannot tell what time it is,
what day it is, what part of the day (morning, afternoon, evening, or night) it is, what month it
is, or what season it is. She cannot calculate very simple math. If we tell something to her and
tell her to remember it, she cannot tell it back after 2/3 minutes. Although she forgets most of
the recent events, she can recall earlier events very clearly.

A Little More Background

Mr. and Mrs. Shahjahan left Bangladesh in early 1990s and settled in the United States of
America. They lived there for about 30 years. All their children and grandchildren live
permanently in America, separately. Their children could not live with them. Mrs. Shahjahan
worked in a store in USA for a long time. She started having short term memory loss problem
in early 2010s. After retirement, the problems started to being noticed. They tried to get her
cured by medical treatment, but all those attempts failed. Then they were sent to Bangladesh
at the beginning of 2019 to live with us. While her husband was alive, her memory loss problem
was not severe. She was always under treatment in this regard. It was under control. But it is
well noticed now and seemed to be increasing.

Categorizing her Psychotic Disorder

Mrs. Shahjahan went through full medical diagnosis both in USA and in Bangladesh. Doctors
termed it Dementia and its intensity as severe. Dementia is a form of organic psychosis. It is
quite common in older people. As per 2021 data, 6.5 million out of 58 million people of age
65 and above have some form of dementia in USA. The percentage increases with increase of
age1. Global projection is more than 55 million older people having it of which more than 60%
live in low and middle-income countries2.

1
https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures.pdf
2
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia

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Assignment, Summer 2022 SOC 2005: Social Psychology
Department of Sociology & Anthropology

Roots of Mrs. Shahjahan’s Dementia as per My Opinion

Mrs. Shahjahan maintained strict and healthy lifestyle at her youth. She used to eat less, sleep
less, and maintain daily work routine. She still eats and sleeps less but does not involve in any
household work. She is still in good health not having diabetes or other major physical problem.

We do not know if her parents had some psychiatric disorder but see it in some of her siblings
and their children. Therefore, our guess is it is inherited to her genetically. She used to work
under pressure at her workplace for long hours. After returning home, she had to manage her
home as well. This dual pressure perhaps accelerated the appearance of the problem. After
retirement the couple spent most of their time at home watching TV, usually about 8 – 10 hours
a day. We believe it also played an important role in developing dementia in her.

Treatment
Mrs. Shahjahan has been under treatment by some of the country’s leading neurosurgeons.
They run some psychological tests on every visit. Doctors say that her condition is not
recoverable. It is best if her condition remains stable, not worsen. It is also recommended to
ensure that she is always under observations and never leaves home alone. If she does that, it
is least likely she can comeback to home by her own.

Stresses in Caring Mrs. Shahjahan

One common problem in caring a senior citizen worldwide is the lack of ‘serving mentality’ of
the caregivers. In most cases, the are handled carelessly or considering an unnecessary extra
load. Respect often is absent in these cases. But Mrs. Shahjahan is in good hand and being care
well. We always show her proper respect and provide her necessary care. No one can guess
that Mrs. Shahjahan bears a severe psychosis at first sight. She also does not have common
elderly physical problems. Until we came to close interaction with her, we did not understand
it would be stressful to handle a patient like her. The acts/behaviors that put stresses to her
sister-in-law (my mother-in-law, the mother of my wife) and on my wife are –

▪ Blaming for not letting her know of her husband’s death.

▪ Blaming his son (living in the USA) for not visiting, calling, taking care of her although he
provides all financial assistance, calls frequently and visit 4 – 5 times a year.
▪ Asking for same thing repeatedly within short interval.

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Assignment, Summer 2022 SOC 2005: Social Psychology
Department of Sociology & Anthropology

▪ Not believing other’s words when someone replies to some of her queries (for example to
know about her husband). On answers, she claims she remembers but her facial expressions
tell otherwise. Sometimes it seems very clear that she doesn’t believe our words.
▪ Mood swing or being irritated very frequently. She does not express directly to us, but it
becomes evident from her expressions. But she expresses her dissatisfaction directly to the
home assistants.
▪ She never sleeps during daytime. Sometimes she wakes up before dawn or at late night and
tries to make tea for her. She cannot turn off the gas stove fully. We fear for gas leakage if
she does so. Fortunately, that happened only once in the last three years.
▪ She seems to be joyous when either of her children or siblings come to visit her.

What We Do to Handle Her

My mother-in-law is about 7/8 years younger to her. She worries for everything. She maintains
a strict daily routine. She supervises all household works in our house. She is the closest in age
to Mrs. Shahjahan. Mrs. Shahjahan looks for my mother-in-law every and then and wants her
to be around. This situation and the above are creating extra loads on my mother-in-law.

Me and my wife understand her behaviors. She is living alone here departing from her family
members. My mother-in-law is with her daughter and grandchildren, but she is deprived of
those. She wants to spend much of her time with my mother-in-law, but she does not fit in her
‘friends’ zone’. Although the age gap between them is not large, she is in a respected position
than a friendly one to my mother-in-law as ‘vabi’ was respected more at the time when she
entered their family than present days. All her time now is leisure time as she does not involve
in any household activities. She probably is not in a state to do those as well.

Another important thing is she asks same question or for same thing as she cannot remember
those. She cannot understand that she is doing it repeatedly that is causing stresses to others.
What she does seems very normal to her. Therefore, we constantly keep reminding her what
she is forgetting and tell my mother-in-law to be more patient in dealing with her.

She cannot tolerate any change in her room. Therefore, we do not change orientation of her
room. All cleats have been removed from the doors of her room and bathroom as she cannot
open it anymore. We also maintain her medicine routine properly and visit doctor regularly.

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Assignment, Summer 2022 SOC 2005: Social Psychology
Department of Sociology & Anthropology

Conclusion

We generally think of elderly problems to be physical. But it also could be psychological. In

fact, the number of psychological cases in older people is rising. People’s life expectancy has
been increasing, family bonding is loosening and becoming nucleus ones, distances among
relatives are increasing – all these are working as catalyst in increasing psychological issues
among senior citizens. These issues are often ignored unlike the physical problems. What I
understand from interacting with Mrs. Shahjahan (‘mami’ of my wife) is these people need
more attention, more care. They need care with respect. And they need mostly to be with their
family, with their children and grandchildren. That may reduce (or at least keep under control)
this type of psychotic disorder among older people.

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