Forgetfulness in various aspects, the most prominent feature of Alzheimer's disease, the disease that causes dementia, is most commonly detected and tends to occur in the elderly.
Alzheimer’s Dementia
Dementia is a loss of intellectual abilities, including impaired cognition and multiple capabilities. If it persists, it will be severe enough to be an obstacle to daily life and often progressively worsens over time.
- So is dementia a type of disease?
- No. Dementia can be caused by many types of diseases. Some affect memory prominently, some affect personality traits, while some cause hallucinations and delusions.
- Is Alzheimer’s disease one type?
- Yes. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common disease that causes dementia. It mostly occurs in the elderly or from middle age onwards, but rarely, it can occur in younger people.
What are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s patients?
In the early stage, patients often ask the same questions repeatedly, even if they were just told a moment ago. They forget what they came to get, where they put things, forget to turn off the gas stove, or forget if they have added seasoning to their cooking. The patient’s symptoms are clear, which affects their daily life or causes difficulty for family members.
In the later stage, they may not be able to recall words, names of objects, or people, but they often do not forget long-past memories. They may get lost often, start neglecting themselves, dress sloppily, have violent emotions, or become easily irritated and short-tempered when things don’t go their way, or they may seem indifferent and uninterested in their surroundings.
In the late stage, they will be unable to take care of personal matters, such as bathing or brushing their teeth by themselves. They may have confused delusions that someone is trying to harm them, their spouse is cheating on them, etc., or they may be apathetic.
In the final stage, they will be like a small child, completely unable to help themselves, not understanding much of what is said or talked about. This is a great burden on caregivers and the family.
Can dementia be treated?
In the past, we often didn’t know that these diseases could be treated or managed. However, nowadays, there are treatments including medication, surgery, and neuropsychiatric therapy, as well as stimulation with a nervous and brain system stimulator called TMS.
Some diseases can be completely cured. Some diseases can have their progression stopped, or at the very least, we can slow down the disease’s progression so that the patient can still help themselves or be happy with their family for as long as possible, which is much better than not having any treatment at all.
Suspecting a family member has dementia or Alzheimer’s disease
First, you must ask people around or close relatives whether the decline in intellectual abilities or the strange behavior has affected the patient themselves, their self-care, or caused concern for family members. See if it is different from the patient’s usual state in the last 2-3 years. If so, it is recommended that the patient undergo an evaluation, including a physical examination, a questionnaire to test brain function, and a blood test or brain imaging diagnosis by a team of specialized neurologists.
Starting from memory loss and forgetfulness in the elderly, get treatment quickly for the quality of life of both the patient and the caregiver. Don’t let Alzheimer’s destroy your brain and your life…
See a specialist at the Neurology and Brain Center
