Can a nursing home patient with memory loss suffer emotional distress even if he or she can not remember the abuse and neglect?

A: A scientific study has confirmed that Alzheimer's patients feel happy or sad even if they can not remember the happy or sad event. University of Iowa researchers showed happy and sad movie clips to patients with severe memory loss.  They found that even though the patients could not remember the movie clips they retained the emotions from the clips. 

The study shows that visiting a nursing home patient with Alzheimer's disease can have a positive effect even if the patient can not remember the visit.  Likewise the emotional scars from abuse and neglect will linger even if the nursing home patient can not recall being abused and neglected. That is why abuse and neglect of the elderly must always be taken seriously to make sure it does not happen again.