Final answer:
The symptom the patient is exhibiting by describing an evening spent on a cruise that did not happen is Confabulation. It is a result of creating false memories to fill memory gaps, often associated with the fourth stage of Alzheimer's disease and other neurocognitive disorders. The Correct Answer is Option .B.
Step-by-step explanation:
A patient hospitalized and diagnosed in the fourth stage of a neurocognitive disorder (NCD) due to Alzheimer's disease (AD), when asked about the previous evening, describes a wonderful evening spent on a cruise which they did not attend. This symptom is indicative of Confabulation, which is the act of creating false memories or stories, often to fill in gaps in one's memory. It can occur in various conditions, including neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease.
Confabulation differs from lying because patients genuinely believe in the stories they create and are not intentionally trying to deceive. In Alzheimer's disease, as cognitive functions decline, episodic memory—the memory of specific events and experiences—can become severely impaired. This can lead to patients confabulating to make sense of the world around them or to answer questions about events they cannot remember.