Information about Dementia
Dr.Kut | Apr 27, 2010 | Comments 0
Dementia is considered to be a degenerating disease that affects the brain and that destroys the cognitive functions of a person. Memory loss, language problems, attention and other related problems may be some of the symptoms of this disease and the person suffering from dementia may not actually be able to tell you the day of the week, month or year and it can get to the point where they totally forget who they are.
Only about 10 percent of dementia cases have the opportunity to get their symptoms reversed. This depends very much on the stage that the disease is at, and on many other factors that are not very clear yet. On its early stages dementia manifests itself as a form of changes in the behavior of a person. This can easily be seen when a patient suffers a traumatic situation and then he or she seems to be unable to go back to being their normal self again.
The symptoms of dementia will include language problems, motor skills problems, the person may have difficulty walking or handling small tasks, short term memory problems, and reaction to certain things may take longer than usual. And although you may not see any signs of intellectual decline, having hallucinations and delusions is also a very common symptom of dementia.
Since this is a disease that affects the elder generation, some delusions can create a mirror self misidentification, where the patient truly believes that he is someone else and that he needs to be somewhere. There are many symptoms of dementia that may come up very easily when an elderly person has to undergo a surgery, or is suffering from an infection, or is not having regular food. Loneliness and environmental changes at later stages in life can also cause the symptoms to come up in individuals.
Delirium is very common among these patients; however, this is a symptom that can be corrected with lots of tender love and care, and with total regulation of the life style of the patient. Care will have to be given to the patient at all times, that his food and sleep patterns are normal and that he does not have any difficult issues with regards to his stability in general.
However the patient will still need to cope with the physiological changes to the brain and their effect in their body and mind. It is therefore extremely important to be able to differentiate between having dementia and delirium because this plays a very important role on the kind of treatment that needs to be given to the patient.
A qualified medical professional can easily evaluate the situation and take the necessary tests to rule out the differences and to be able to give the proper treatment that will help the patient cope with the disease in the best manner possible.
There is a lot of research going on to try and find ways of curing diseases like dementia, however, so far, there is only treatment to help with the symptoms, and perhaps we should be able to see some medications which will be able to slow down the process as well.
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