adminDr Sacrifice Chirisa Mental Health Matters
Dementia is a psychiatric condition resulting from an acquired brain disease and characterised by progressive deterioration in mainly memory and other cognitive domains like language, judgment, abstract thinking, and executive functioning.
The deterioration represents a decline from previous levels of functioning and is sufficient to interfere with social and occupational functioning.
Though dementia generally involves memory loss, memory loss has different causes, this means that memory loss alone doesn’t mean you have dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of a progressive dementia in older adults, but there are a number of causes of dementia.
Depending on the cause, some dementia symptoms can be reversed. This warrants investigation of every newly diagnosed person with memory problems.
However, dementia symptoms vary depending on the cause, but common signs and symptoms are discussed below:
Cognitive changes
- Memory loss, which is usually noticed by a spouse or someone else
- Difficulty communicating or finding words
- Difficulty reasoning or problem-solving
- Difficulty handling complex tasks
- Difficulty with planning and organising
- Difficulty with coordination and motor functions
- Confusion and disorientation
Psychological changes
- Personality changes
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Inappropriate behaviour
- Paranoia
- Agitation
- Hallucinations
Dementia involves damage of nerve cells in the brain, which can occur in several areas of the brain. Dementia affects people differently, depending on the area of the brain affected. Dementias are often grouped by what they have in common, such as the part of the brain that’s affected or whether they worsen over time (progressive dementias). Some dementias, such as those caused by a reaction to medications or vitamin deficiencies, might improve with treatment.
Progressive dementias :
Are dementias that progress and aren’t reversible include:
- Alzheimer’s disease. In people aged 65 and older, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia.
- Vascular dementia. This second most common type of dementia occurs as a result of damage to the vessels that supply blood to your brain. Blood vessel problems can be caused by stroke or other blood vessel conditions. This is common in individuals with poorly controlled hypertension.
- Lewy body dementia. Lewy bodies are abnormal clumps of protein that have been found in the brains of people with Lewy body dementia.
- Fronto-temporal dementia. This is a group of diseases characterised by the breakdown of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, the areas generally associated with personality, behaviour and language.
- Mixed dementia. Studies of the brains of people aged 80 and older, who had dementia indicate that many had a combination of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia
The take home message is; as more of our population ages, the rates of dementia will rise.
It becomes critical to identify the symptoms early and to plan management early. If not recognised, the sufferers might be subjected to emotional and physical abuse.
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