Dementia - causes, symptoms, treatment

Dementia is a brain disorder that leads to long-term loss of ability to think and can
affect a person's daily functioning.
The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease (75%). Other forms
include dementia: Lewy, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, progressive
supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, normal pressure hydrocephalus and
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
In most cases dementia can not be treated. Educating and providing emotional
support to the attendant is necessary. Exercise programs are beneficial in terms of
day-to-day activities.
Dementia becomes more common with age. While only 3% of people aged 65-74
suffer from dementia, 47% of people aged 85 years have a form of dementia.
Dementia - Symptoms
Dementia affects the brain's ability to think, motivate and memorize. The most
common affected areas include memory, language, attention, and decision power.
It is possible for a patient to have two types of dementia at the same time.
Approximately 10% of people with dementia have what is known as mixed dementia,
which is usually a combination of Alzheimer's disease and another type of dementia
such as fronto-temporal dementia or vascular dementia.
Additional psychological and behavioral problems that often affect people with
dementia include:
Disinhibition and impulsivity
Depress and / or anxiety
Agitatie
 Balance problems
Tremor
Conversatia
 Swallowing problems
 Illusions (often I think people steal from them) or hallucinations
Distrushes of memory
Neliniste
When people with dementia are put into circumstances beyond their abilities, they
can manifest themselves in excess of anger or crying.
Depression affects 20-30% of people with dementia and about 20% have anxiety.
Agitation / aggression also accompany. often dementia.
Dementia - Causes
Reversible causes of dementia
There are four main causes of mild reversible dementia: hypothyroidism, vitamin B12
deficiency, Lyme disease, and neurosifilis. All people with memory difficulties should
be checked for hypothyroidism and vitamin B12 deficiency.
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. The most common
symptoms are short term memory loss and cumbersome speech. People with
Alzheimer's also have problems with spatial riveting (for example, they may begin to
lose many times), reasoning, judgment, and understanding.
Early common symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include repetition, wasting, difficulty
keeping records of bills, forgetting to take medication.
Vascular dementia
After Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia is multi-infarct
dementia. This condition, also referred to as vascular dementia, develops in the case
of a stroke in which blood flow is blocked to certain areas of the brain. The loss of
mental function in the case of a multi-infarct dementia can not be regained, but in
the future it can prevent further damage by reducing the risk of cardiovascular
disease.
Dementia with Lewy bodies
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DCL) is a dementia that has the main symptoms of
visual hallucinations and Parkinson's. Symptoms include tremor, muscle stiffness, and
a faint-hearted face. Visual hallucinations in DCL are generally very vivid
hallucinations of people and / or animals, and these often occur when someone is
about to fall asleep or wake up. Other prominent symptoms include attention
problems, organizing, problem solving and planning and difficulty with visual-space
function.
Frontal-temporal dementia
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a dementia that is characterized by drastic
personality changes and language difficulties. Memory problems are not a major
feature of this disease.
There are three main types of FTD. The first one has major symptoms in the
personality and behavioral area. This is called the FTD (bv-FTD) behavior and is the
most common. In bv-FTD, the person will have a change in personal hygiene, they
will become rigid in their thinking, they rarely admit that there is a problem, they will
be withdrawn from the social point of view, and they will often have a drastic
increase of appetite. The person may also be socially inappropriate. For example, the
person can make inappropriate sexual comments. One of the most common signs is
apathy, or the fact that they do not care about anything.
The second type is called semantic dementia or dementia temporal variation. The
main feature of this is the loss of meaning of words. The person eventually can also
lose the meaning of the objects as well. For example, a one-year drawing