Symptoms, Causes and Treatment of Dementia Disease
Older people suffering from memory loss and thinking difficulties are often the patient of dementia disease. According to NHS, Dementia is a syndrome that is related to some brain disabilities. The brain disabilities associated with Dementia may be due to structural or functional changes. The effect of such disabilities on the normal functioning of the patients varies upon the extent of the neurological damage. According to the WHO, approximately 55 million people have Dementia. Among them, 60% of Dementia patients belong to middle or low level (in terms of income) countries.
WHO further predicted that the number of older citizens is increasing worldwide. In 2030, the expected number of Dementia patients will reach 78 million. It is further predicted that this number will further increase to 139 million by 2050. This statistical data provided by WHO highlights that Dementia will be the biggest economic challenge for countries with middle or low income in the future. So this article at Acute Posting will provide basic knowledge about the symptoms, causes, and treatment of Dementia disease to save the World from these economic and health crises.
Symptoms:
The early sign and symptoms of Dementia disease may vary among different people. In addition, the appearance or kind of symptoms depends upon the previous health of the patients. However, patients’ common signs and symptoms are categorized into early-stage symptoms, intermediate-stage symptoms, and late-stage symptoms.
Early-Stage Symptoms:
The early symptoms of Dementia are not evidenced in every patient. In most patients, the early stage is sometimes asymptomatic. While in other patients, only mild symptoms appear. Still, in some cases, people confuse the symptoms of Dementia with signs of aging. Few symptoms that people experience at a very early stage of Dementia are forgetting previous happenings, forgetting the path of your own home, forgetting the names of some close relatives, and feeling stress while remembering old things.
Intermediate Stage:
With the progression of Dementia, the signs and symptoms of Dementia become clearer and easy to identify. The sign and symptoms of is Dementia that is more obvious in patients suffering from the middle or intermediate level of sickness are
- The brain is not able to suggest appropriate words for effective communication.
- Dementia patients forget recent events.
- They require a high level of personal care.
- They cannot go alone anywhere because they may forget the path.
- In Dementia patients, behavior changes are obvious. For example, they often become irritated or short-tempered.
- They used to ask the same question again and again.
Late-Stage Symptoms:
In terms of symptoms, the most difficult stage of Dementia disease is the late stage. This stage is often categorized as the loss of independence and routine activities. At this stage, the loss of memory is at its peak, and other related symptoms include:
- Such patients are not aware of the time frame and places in which they are present.
- Unable to recognize close relatives, even blood relations in extreme cases.
- They cannot even maintain their balance while walking.
- They cannot feel relaxed. On the contrary, such patients are always in a state of anger.
- Such patients cannot trust people.
- They require full-time assistance or personal care by relatives or Nurses.
Causes of Dementia Disease:
According to a coursework help firm, just like the symptoms, the causes of Dementia also vary among different people. However, the most obvious cause of Dementia is the change in brain structure or damage to the neurons.
Major Causes of Dementia Disease:
- Alzheimer’s disease is the most prominent cause of Dementia.
- Parkinson’s disease is also found associated with Dementia.
- Severe hardening of blood vessels (arteries or veins), prolonged blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and cardiovascular diseases are also important causes of Dementia.
- People suffering from several small heart strokes have greater chances to develop Dementia in their old age.
- Pick disease is found associated with Frontotemporal Dementia.
- Severe head injury and trauma may also result in partial or complete memory loss or Dementia.
Minor Causes of Dementia:
Minor causes of Dementia are those who are less common among Dementia disease patients, such as
- Leukoencephalopathies are less commonly associated with Dementia. LeuSymptomskoencephalopathies are categorized by abnormal white matter in the brain of patients when seen through neuroimaging techniques.
- Dementia sometimes results from the consequences of Huntington’s disease.
- Degenerative brain disease due to multiple system atrophy is another cause of Dementia in some patients.
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an acute brain degenerative diseases, sometimes result in Dementia in Patients.
Apart from major or minor causes, is some patient’s genetic bases of Dementia have also been evidenced.
Inherited Dementia Disease:
Physiological changes in brain anatomy are common in patients with age greater than 60, while in patients younger than 50, inherited Dementia is common.
Treatments:
Currently, the treatment of Dementia in the form of medicine and surgery is unavailable. Doctors and researchers are continuously working to make anti-dementia medicines. Unfortunately, the current disease-modifying therapies and anti-dementia medicines are not as efficient in the case of Dementia. However, these medicines have greater efficiencies for Alzheimer’s disease. The effectiveness of available treatments also depends upon the stage of Dementia. Therefore, instead of medical treatment, the personal care procedure is a better option to deal with Dementia patients.
The personal care of Dementia disease includes the following parameters:
- Public awareness campaigns to ensure early diagnosis and management of Dementia are effective tools to control and manage to raise cases of late-stage diagnosis.
- Personal care ensures a healthy routine with more early morning exercise and balanced diets. A balanced diet and daily physical exercise are the best ways to reduce the chances of Dementia.
- Furthermore, CT, MRI, and PET scans are among the recent diagnostic tools used to examine the neurological changes in patients with Dementia.
The primary goal of Dementia treatment is to ensure the safety of patients in their personal space. Therefore, the proper training of the caregivers about how to treat and protect such patients from life-threatening accidents is an important aspect of Dementia personal care management.