Dementia is not a single disease but a collection of symptoms that include memory loss, impaired intellectual functions and various other personality changes. These symptoms are not a part of a normal ageing process of a person but result from any disease, injury, damage or trauma to the brain. Dementia can severely affect the normal living, career and relationship of any person to significant extent.
Dementia is not only a problem of memory but it also reduces the ability to reason, ability to learn, ability to recall the past experience and also the ability to retain; there is also loss of feelings, activities and patterns of thoughts.
The person suffering from dementia is more affected by the behavioral and mental problems. When this disease starts to worsen then the individuals might neglect them and may also become incontinent and uninhibited. The behavior of the person suffering from dementia becomes restless, inappropriate and disorganized. Some people become so restless that they start wandering about by day and sometimes even at night. If dementia patients are put in circumstances that are beyond their abilities then there might be a sudden change of behavior and they might get angry.
There are three stages of dementia. In the first stage, the person suffering from it has an impaired concentration, deterioration of memory and an increasing tendency to anxiety and fatigue. The failure of memory is observed for one or two years as it is a relatively slow process. There are also speech disorders in people suffering from this disease.
In the second stage, the person is unable to carry on his/her regular routine. It also becomes difficult for them to change their clothes. In the third stage, the intellectual function of a person is grossly impaired. There is also a considerable disability of neurological function, unsteady gait and decreased muscle tone.
Many researchers have indicated that it is very helpful to indentify dementia as early as one could. If it is diagnosed early then it helps the doctor to prescribe some cognitive enhancing medication such as Aricept. These kinds of medications might help to slow down the progression and hold off severe kind of symptoms which accompany the advanced stages of dementia.
A person in its early stage dementia may be vulnerable towards making poor judgment and poor decision. He/she lacks interest in his/her hobbies, in trying new things and adapts to the necessary change. He may become slower in the daily life works and repeats the tasks and even the conversations unnecessarily.
The main causes of this disease are different kinds of brain injury that might cause irreversible but a fixed cognitive impairment. The white matter of the brain is generally damaged by a traumatic brain injury. If there is a temporary reduction of oxygen or blood in the brain then it may lead to hypoxic-ischemic injury. Infections such as encephalitis and meningitis and strokes such as intracerebral hemorrhage, extradural hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage, ischemic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage affect the brain. Acute hydrocephalus and prolonged epileptic seizures might also have a long-term effect on cognition.
There are many causes and kinds of dementia that often show slightly different symptoms however, the symptom overlap makes it impossible to diagnose this kind of disease by symptomatology itself. The diagnosis is done by the brain scanning techniques. In some cases one is not sure about it without a brain biopsy or an autopsy.
Dementia is not only a problem of memory but it also reduces the ability to reason, ability to learn, ability to recall the past experience and also the ability to retain; there is also loss of feelings, activities and patterns of thoughts.
The person suffering from dementia is more affected by the behavioral and mental problems. When this disease starts to worsen then the individuals might neglect them and may also become incontinent and uninhibited. The behavior of the person suffering from dementia becomes restless, inappropriate and disorganized. Some people become so restless that they start wandering about by day and sometimes even at night. If dementia patients are put in circumstances that are beyond their abilities then there might be a sudden change of behavior and they might get angry.
There are three stages of dementia. In the first stage, the person suffering from it has an impaired concentration, deterioration of memory and an increasing tendency to anxiety and fatigue. The failure of memory is observed for one or two years as it is a relatively slow process. There are also speech disorders in people suffering from this disease.
In the second stage, the person is unable to carry on his/her regular routine. It also becomes difficult for them to change their clothes. In the third stage, the intellectual function of a person is grossly impaired. There is also a considerable disability of neurological function, unsteady gait and decreased muscle tone.
Many researchers have indicated that it is very helpful to indentify dementia as early as one could. If it is diagnosed early then it helps the doctor to prescribe some cognitive enhancing medication such as Aricept. These kinds of medications might help to slow down the progression and hold off severe kind of symptoms which accompany the advanced stages of dementia.
A person in its early stage dementia may be vulnerable towards making poor judgment and poor decision. He/she lacks interest in his/her hobbies, in trying new things and adapts to the necessary change. He may become slower in the daily life works and repeats the tasks and even the conversations unnecessarily.
The main causes of this disease are different kinds of brain injury that might cause irreversible but a fixed cognitive impairment. The white matter of the brain is generally damaged by a traumatic brain injury. If there is a temporary reduction of oxygen or blood in the brain then it may lead to hypoxic-ischemic injury. Infections such as encephalitis and meningitis and strokes such as intracerebral hemorrhage, extradural hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage, ischemic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage affect the brain. Acute hydrocephalus and prolonged epileptic seizures might also have a long-term effect on cognition.
There are many causes and kinds of dementia that often show slightly different symptoms however, the symptom overlap makes it impossible to diagnose this kind of disease by symptomatology itself. The diagnosis is done by the brain scanning techniques. In some cases one is not sure about it without a brain biopsy or an autopsy.
About the Author:
There is a lot of information to learn when it comes to the very early stages of dementia. An excellent starting point for Early Stage Dementia information, would be to visit the following website at http://stagesofdementia.org.
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