16
16 Caregiving
Caregiving
Understanding Dementia, Senility & Alzheimer’s Disease
What is Dementia? Dementia is the permenant, relentless,
progressive loss of many intellectual functions. The word “dementia” comes from the Latin words “de men,” meaning out of mind. Dementia is caused by death of nerve cells. If a nerve cell dies, it cannot be replaced. Its function may be lost. Nerve cell death or dementia is caused by: • Alzheimer’s disease 60-70% • Multiple small strokes 15% • Multiple other causes 10-15%
Five to 20 percent of elderly patients who appear demented have treatable conditions, such as: • Hormonal imbalance (hypothyroidism) • Drug/medication-induced confusion • Depression
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one type of dementia; it is often used synonymously with dementia. In 1906, German physician Alois Alzheimer described the disease in a brain specimen autopsy. There is no clear consensus of why the nerve cells die in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Inheritance plays some role: • 5% clearly inheritable (autosomal dominant)
• 20-60% may have a genetic predisposition
How many people are affected? Approximately fi ve million Americans
are affl icted with Alzheimer’s disease. In Alabama, about 57,000 people have dementia. AD is the fourth leading cause of death among adults in America. Approximately 10 percent of the population over 65 years of age have AD. Forty-seven percent of those over the age of 85 have dementia. This is the fastest growing
Senior Resource Directory 2017-2018
segment of the population in the United States. Dementia affl icts both men and women in all racial, religious and socioeconomic groups. Sixty percent of all nursing home patients are demented.
What are the symptoms? Intellectual losses include: Amnesia: Loss of memory function.
Distant memories remain clear while recent memories are lost. Patients lose the ability to store the memory of an event as it occurs; for example, a patient may not remember the course of a conversation from one moment to the next.
Aphasia: Loss of ability to understand
spoken/written words and/or inability to speak coherently. Patients may get words confused, jabber incessantly or become mute.
Apraxia: Loss of ability to perform
pre-programmed motor tasks or tasks that a normal person completes without any concentration. Some examples include: buttoning a shirt, brushing one’s teeth, writing one’s name and eating with utensils.
Agnosia: Loss of ability to remember what
things look like, including the face of a close relative and even one’s own refl ection in a mirror.
Psychiatric problems include: •Major personality changes.
•Poor judgment, irritability or inappropriate behavior. •25% suffer from depression that should be treated. •30-40% suffer from hallucinations and delusions. •50% wander or become aggressive.
Non-neurological symptoms:
Only the brain is damaged in Alzheimer’s. Patients have a long survival rate because other organ systems are not damaged.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104
