Dementia: Frequently Asked Questions
What is dementia?
Dementia is a group of symptoms characterized by a decline in intellectual functioning severe enough to interfere with a person’s normal daily activities and social relationships. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in older persons.
Source: www.alzcare.net
Dementia or Alzheimer's disease is a prog r essive, degenerative disease of the brain, which causes thinking and memory to become seriously impaired. It is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is a syndrome consisting of a number of symptoms that include loss of memory, judgment and reasoning, and changes in mood, behaviour and communication abilities.
Source: www.physioremedy.com
Dementia is a disease of the brain due to which a person gradually loses his or her cognitive function of the brain and loses efficiency to remember, work and do mundane jobs.
Source: www.astridguide.org
Dementia is a progressive brain dysfunction (in Latin 'dementia' means irrationality), which results in a restriction of daily activities, and in most cases leads to the need for long term care. Many diseases can result in dementia, the most common one being Alzheimer's disease.
Source: www.stpatrickshospital.net
When cognitive function declines to the point that it interferes a great deal with day-to-day activities, and other medical conditions have been ruled out, a diagnosis of dementia might be given. Different brain diseases can cause dementia. The most well known is Alzheimer’s disease. Other diseases that block the normal flow of blood in the brain can also cause dementia. What causes these diseases and how they progress is not well understood at this time. ...
Source: www.whi.org
Is dementia hereditary?
In general, the chance of getting Alzheimer's disease is a bit larger if one of the parents suffered from the disease. Not much more is known at the moment about the way Alzheimer's disease is inherited. In a small number of families Alzheimer's disease occurs at a young age. In those families a deviation in genetic material was found which is responsible for the origin of the disease.
Source: www.janssen-cilag.nl
Is Alzheimer's senile dementia?
Alzheimer's is a form of senile dementia. Senile dementia or organic brain syndrome were the phrases in popular use about twenty years ago to describe Alzheimer's disease. "Senility" is a catch-all word that means "old" and is especially associated with memory loss in the elderly. "Dementia" is an umbrella term for disorders where the mental functions break down -- where there is confusion, disorientation, and memory loss for recent events.
Source: www.byrdinstitute.org
What causes MCI and Dementia?
The main cause of MCI and Dementia is a group of disorders called Alzheimer's disease and Related Disorders (ADRD). Approximately 60% of the cases of MCI or Dementia are due to Alzheimer's disease and another 20% are due to vascular dementia. Smaller numbers of cases are caused by Parkinson's disease, Lewy Body disease and frontal lobe dementia. Approximately 5% of patients with MCI or Dementia will have completely reversible conditions such as depression, vitamin deficiency or thyroid problems. ...
Source: www.mccare.com
What are the risk factors for Dementia?
Even though a specific risk factor has not been found yet, studies show that age, gene types, family history, injuries to the head, high blood pressure and low education are some risk factors.
Source: www.astridguide.org
Can dementia be treated?
There are a number of favorable conditions which can ease the situation of the patient and his/her relatives - these conditions concern in particular the actual care and the organization of the environment. Improvements can be achieved through physical, emotional and also mental activation. As with numerous other diseases there is no cure for the illness, but medication can improve disease symptoms. There are a number of drugs on the market today for improving brain function. ...
Source: www.stpatrickshospital.net
Dementia - more specifically Alzheimer - can be treated with medicines nowadays. These will make sure that the substances involved in the communication between nerve cells remain levelled. In this way deterioration can be slowed down. However, it is not possible to stop or reverse the deterioration. We also try to treat the separate symptoms of the disease.
Source: www.janssen-cilag.nl
What are the stages of Alzheimer's dementia?
Alzheimer's disease can take very different courses. It is a slowly unfolding, progressive disease which is accompanied over time by changes in the appearance of the patient. The disease is typically divided into three stages. In medical terms, Alzheimer's disease is divided into mild, moderate and severe, or early-stage, mid-stage and late-stage Alzheimer. The mild stage is typically characterized by impairments of mental abilities as well as mood swings. ...
Source: www.stpatrickshospital.net
Alzheimer's disease can take very different courses. It is a slowly unfolding, progressive disease which is accompanied over time by changes in the appearance of the patient. The disease is typically divided into three stages. In medical terms, Alzheimer's disease is divided into mild, moderate and severe or early-stage, mid-stage and late-stage Alzheimer. The mild stage is typically characterized by impairments of mental abilities as well as mood swings. ...
Source: www.dementiabangalore.com
How common is dementia?
It is probably worthwhile to first define what is and is not dementia. A clinical definition of dementia requires a decline in memory and impairment in at least one other area of mental functioning. Examples include difficulty with aspects of language, impaired ability to perform motor tasks (in the absence of physical disability) and difficulty in what is termed executive function of the brain (planning, organizing, sequencing, abstracting). ...
Source: www.avalonpsychiatry.com
In our aging society the probability of suffering from dementia increases with advancing age. Dementia predominantly occurs in the second half of our life, often after the age of 65 - some experts think that this is the 'price society has to pay' for our higher life expectancy and therefore the term 'dementia' activates similar fears and repression mechanisms as 'cancer' or 'AIDS'. The relatives share their fate with many people who are equally affected.
Source: www.dementiabangalore.com
What is the impact of dementia on society?
In addition to the considerable direct financial costs associated with medical care of patients with dementia, there are a number of less obvious costs that dementia has on society. For example, in Louisiana there is estimated to be over 150,000 individuals who spend a significant amount of their time as the primary care provider for the individual with dementia. ...
Source: idrp.pbrc.edu
What is Senile Dementia?
Senile Dementia is a form of intellectual impairment found primarily in elderly people. Approximately 10% of all persons older than 65 years have clinically important intellectual impairment. However, about 20% of these cases may be due to treatable causes such as toxic drug reactions. Most cases turn out to be Alzheimer's disease. ...
Source: www.ivyridgehome.com
This term is often used when referring to Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is most likely to affect older people: of all people over 80, 20% suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
Source: www.janssen-cilag.nl
CAN DEMENTIA BE CURED?
Dementia is caused by many conditions. Some conditions that cause dementia can be reversed, and others cannot. Further, many different medical conditions may cause symptoms that seem like Alzheimer's disease, but are not. Some of these medical conditions may be treatable. Reversible conditions can be caused by a high fever, dehydration, vitamin deficiency and poor nutrition, some forms of alcoholism, bad reactions to medicines, problems with the thyroid gland, or a minor head injury. ...
Source: namesrecall.com
What are the reversible causes of dementia?
Depression Medication side effects Delirium Substance abuse Hypothyroidism Hypercalcaemia Vit B 12 deficiency Collagen Vascular Disease Neurosyphilis
Source: www.anzsgm.org
What is amnesia? What is dementia?
Amnesia means that memory, or the ability to access stored knowledge, is abnormal. Dementia means that other thinking abilities (such as the ability to organize activities, or use numbers, or pay attention, or estimate distances) are also impaired, and usually means that the problem is progressively getting worse over time. Although Alzheimer Disease and similar disorders of brain metabolism may cause dementia, stroke is also a common cause.
Source: www.kmrrec.org
What are the signs of dementia?
In someone who is demented you will see: forgetfulness orientation problems difficulty to make plans and think ahead difficulty with certain actions (dressing, making telephone calls) thinking disorders (language disorders, problems with calculating) changing character traits and behavioural disturbances, for example agitation and aggressiveness
Source: www.janssen-cilag.nl
Are there different types of dementia?
There are different types of dementia. The effects of different types are similar but not identical, as each one tends to affect different parts of the brain. Some of the common forms are: 1.Alzheimer’s Disease 2.Vascular Dementia 3.Dementia with Lewy Bodies 4.Frontal Lobe dementia 5.Alcohol related dementia Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia and accounts for 60% of the dementia cases.
Source: www.dementiagoa.org
What are the symptoms of dementia?
Every person is unique and dementia affects people differently. However, the 10 most common symptoms of dementia include: Memory loss Difficulty in performing familiar tasks Problems with language Disorientation to time and place Poor or decreased judgement Problems with keeping track of things Misplacing things Changes in mood or behaviour Changes in personality Loss of initiative
Source: www.dementiagoa.org
Who gets dementia?
Dementia is more common in those above the age of 60. However in some cases it can affect people in their 40’s and 50’s.
Source: www.dementiagoa.org
What is Dementia with Lewy Bodies?
Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is the second most common cause of dementia in older people, affecting approximately 130,000 individuals in the UK together with their carers and relations. It is sometimes also referred to as Lewy body disease or Lewy Body dementia.
Source: www.lewybody.org
What is multi-infarct dementia (MID)?
In multi-infarct dementia, a series of small strokes or changes in the brain's blood supply may result in the death of brain tissue. The location in the brain where the small strokes occur determines the seriousness of the problem and the symptoms that arise. Symptoms that begin suddenly may be a sign of this kind of dementia. People with multi-infarct dementia are likely to show signs of improvement or remain stable for long periods of time, then quickly develop new symptoms if more strokes occur. ...
Source: www.byrdinstitute.org
How is dementia different from Alzheimer’s?
Dementia is a clinical state characterized by the loss of function in several cognitive domains. It is a general term used to describe groups of symptoms such as loss of memory, judgment, complex motor skills and language. Many major disorders such as Alzheimer’s cause dementia. Several other diseases can also cause dementia, such as Parkinson’s, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Huntington’s and multi-infarct or vascular disease, caused by multiple strokes in the brain. ...
Source: www.stafford-hill.com
Does Dementia happen only to older people?
Dementia is more common in older adults, but it can happen to younger adults as well.
Source: www.thehartford.com
What is the difference between Alzheimer's disease and dementia?
Dementia is a group of symptoms including profound short-term memory loss, intellectual impairment and change in personality. Alzheimer's disease is a deterioration of brain cells. It is the most common cause of dementia.
Source: www.memorygarden.org
