NH About two years ago, my collegues at the Medical University of South Carolina Memory Disorders Clinic came across a gentleman with Alzheimer's disease who believed that his neighbor's lawn was slowly creeping onto his own lawn. To my collegues and I, believing that someone's lawn might creep onto your lawn in the middle of the night wasn't the strange part. Delusions of time and space are fairly common with Alzheimer's disease.
Poor problem solving is typical in all types of dementias.
The part that was strange to us was that this gentleman had access to the family gun. We couldn't get over that part of the story. Families with small children tend to keep guns locked away or out of the house. Our results were disturbing. Our study presents disturbing data with potentially significant consequences for public health and safety.