What is Dementia? What Causes Dementia? Symptoms of Dementia
The word dementia comes from the Latin meaning of “apart” and the genitive mentis men means “mind”. Dementia is the progressive deterioration of cognitive function – the ability to process thought (intelligence).Progressive means the symptoms gradually get worse. The deterioration is more than would be expected from normal aging and is due to injury or illness. Damage may be due to a stroke, while an example of a disease may be Alzheimer’s disease.
Dementia signs and symptoms:
Dementia is a non-specific syndrome in which affected areas of brain function may be affected, such as memory, language, problem solving, and attention. Dementia, unlike Alzheimer’s disease is not a disease itself. When you see the insanity of higher mental functions of the patient is initially treated. Finally, in the later stages, the person may not know what day of the week, month or year it is, you may not know where it is and not be able to identify people around you. Dementia is significantly more common among the elderly. However, it can affect adults of any age.
The symptoms of dementia?
* Loss of memory – the patient may forget the way home from the shops. They may forget names and places. They can be difficult to remember what happened earlier in the day.
* Changes in mood – the patient may become more and more temperamental as parts of the brain that control emotion are damaged. Moods may also be affected by fear and anxiety – the patient is afraid of what is happening to him.
* Communication difficulties – the affected person finds it difficult to talk about reading and / or write.As the dementia progresses, the patient’s ability to perform everyday tasks diminishes and may not be able to take care of itself.
Diseases that cause dementia
* Alzheimer’s disease – This is by far the most common cause of dementia. The chemistry and structure of the brain of a person with changes in Alzheimer’s disease and brain cells die prematurely.
* Stroke (vascular problems) – this means that problems with blood vessels (veins and arteries). Our brain needs a good supply of blood rich in oxygen. If this resource can be undermined in any way our brain cells can die – causing symptoms of vascular dementia. Symptoms may appear suddenly or gradually. A major stroke symptoms will suddenly appear, while a series of mini-strokes no.
* Dementia with Lewy bodies – spherical structures develop inside nerve cells. Brain cells are nerve cells, but are part of our nervous system. These spherical structures in the brain tissue brain damage. The patient’s memory, concentration and ability to speak is affected. Dementia with Lewy bodies is sometimes confused with Parkinson’s disease because the symptoms are quite similar.
* Fronto-temporal dementia – which includes Pick’s disease. The front of the brain is damaged. The patient’s behavior and personality are affected first, then changes his mind.
* Other diseases - progressive supranuclear palsy, Korsakoff syndrome, Binswanger’s disease, HIV and AIDS, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Dementia is more common among patients with Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, motor neuron and multiple sclerosis. People who suffer from AIDS sometimes go on to develop cognitive impairment.
Diagnosis of dementia:
Although there is some evidence synthesis, a more reliable diagnosis must be carried out by a specialist such as a geriatric internist, geriatric psychiatrist, neurologist, neuropsychologist or geropsychologist.
The treatment for dementia?
In most cases of dementia is incurable. Researchers are making progress on treatments that can slow the progression of dementia. Cholinestaerase inhibitors administered during the early stages. The cognitive and behavioral therapies may also be useful. Several studies have found that music therapy helps patients with dementia. It is important to remember that the caregiver also needs training and emotional support.In U.S., tacrine (Cognex), donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl) and rivastigmine (Exelon) are approved for the treatment of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease – some doctors prescribe these drugs for vascular dementia as well. Selegiline, which is used to treat Parkinson’s disease has been found to slow the progress of dementia.In Canada, a country where they speak two languages??, English and French, the researchers found that bilingual people who develop dementia do four years after monolingual people who develop dementia. The difference of four years prevails even after controlling for variables such as cultural differences, education, employment, gender and immigration.