- By BlueBC_Admin
- In News
Dementia in the elderly and symptoms to look for
Dementia is not a disease. It’s a group of signs and symptoms that come from brain damage caused by diseases like Alzheimer’s. These signs and symptoms depend on what part of the brain is hurt[1].
Whether you’re worried about yourself or a loved one, it’s important to know the signs of dementia so you can get a diagnosis as soon as possible.
Signs and symptoms to look for
Elderly Dementia patients struggle with thinking and remembering, which impairs their ability to do day-to-day tasks and interferes with their quality-of-life Initial Symptoms[2].
Initial Symptoms
It’s possible that the signs and symptoms of dementia in the early stages of the disease will be minor and easy to miss.
In general, the following are some early warning signs that may appear:
Memory problems
The symptoms can manifest in a variety of ways. For instance, a person may suffer from short-term memory, making it difficult for them to recall what they have eaten for breakfast.
Difficulty concentrating
It can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including the inability to follow a conversation.
Disorientation
It is a state in which one may become confused about both the time and the location. For instance, a person can forget where they are going and have a difficult time navigating their way back home.
Problems with communication
These include forgetting common terms or replacing them with words that do not make sense in the given context. That is why their verbal and written communication may be challenging to comprehend.
Judgment problems
Problems with one’s ability to judge distances and spaces accurately can make a person clumsy and cause them to run into things on a regular basis.
Difficulty carrying out ordinary tasks
Elderly patients with dementia exhibit difficulty in carrying out ordinary tasks. For instance, a person may have difficulty remembering which article of clothing to put on first or the processes required in preparing a meal that they have prepared before.
Middle Stage Symptoms
As dementia worsens, the symptoms become increasingly obvious to those around the patient. A person may:
- Become more forgetful
- Get disoriented in their own house.
- Have increased difficulties communicating with others.
- Require greater need for assistance with taking care of themselves
- Display changes in behavior such as repeating the same questions over and over again
Late-Stage Symptoms
At this point in time, the symptoms have progressed to a more severe level:
Memory issues
They might cause a person to be unable to recognize familiar places or members of their family.
Problems with communication
These include the potential for a person to lose their ability to talk. A person with dementia can use gestures, Touch, and facial expressions, to communicate with people.
Changes in behavior and mental state
People may get irritated, depressed, or anxious. Additionally, they may hallucinate or wander around aimlessly.
bladder Incontinence
It is a symptom that may present itself in the later stages of dementia.
Appetite and weight loss
Patients may have difficulties swallowing food and eating, which can make eating difficult. They might also experience a loss of appetite, which would lead to a reduction in weight.
How do you treat dementia?
The best way to treat dementia depends on what’s causing it. Neurodegenerative dementias, like Alzheimer’s, can’t be cured, but there are medicines that can protect the brain or help with symptoms like anxiety or changes in behavior. Future research is being done to come up with more treatment options.
A healthy lifestyle, which includes regular exercise, healthy eating, and contact with friends and family, lowers the risk of chronic diseases and may lower the number of people with dementia.
The Alzheimer’s disease medicine aducanumab-avwa (Aduhelm) is the first new treatment option in decades to receive FDA approval. if your loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, your doctor may recommend monthly infusions for the elderly. It’s a type of monoclonal antibody that helps prevent amyloid plaques from forming in the brain. Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by a decline in memory, in part due to the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain[3].
There are medications that can assist reduce the course of cognitive impairments in the elderly, such as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (such as galantamine and donepezil), but these medications often have very minor effects and cannot stop the underlying disease from worsening over time.
References
- Jia, L., Quan, M., Fu, Y., Zhao, T., Li, Y., Wei, C., … & Jia, J. (2020). Dementia in China: epidemiology, clinical management, and research advances. The Lancet Neurology, 19(1), 81-92.
- Bohra, R. (2020). A REVIEW ON COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND DEMENTIA
- Livingston, G., Huntley, J., Sommerlad, A., Ames, D., Ballard, C., Banerjee, S., … & Mukadam, N. (2020). Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. The Lancet, 396(10248), 413-446.
