Dealing With Dementia

Dementia

Dementia is the medical term, used in order to describe a progressive dysfunction of the brain, resulting in the daily activities of the affected person getting restricted. In most of the cases, the patients suffering from dementia necessitates intense care fro a long period. It is one of the very common diseases that occur to the aged people. The older a person is, the more is the possibility of his getting affected by dementia. While 2% of the people aged between 65 and 69, and 5% of the people aged between 75 and 79 are affected by dementia, the disorder have been found to have affected 20% of the 85-90 year olds and more that 33% of the people aged above 90.

Causes of Dementia

The causes of dementia can be classified into several categories. Some of the factors that cause this brain disorder are several disease processes. Even mental illnesses like psychosis and depression have been found to have the potential to cause this disorder. The Alzheimer’s disease and stroke are also among the common causes of dementia.

Dementia Symptoms

Let us discuss the symptoms of this brain disorder. Loss of memory is the principal one among the Dementia symptoms. Inability to think or ponder over something is also another very prominent symptom. So far as the normal daily activities are concerned, a patient suffering from dementia is hardly be able to perform the activities that he is expected to do. A Dementia patient may also lose the power to take decisions, solve problems and even to control emotions. They feel irritated at the least provocation or no provocation at all. Their personalities often go through a change. What is more, they may see things which are actually not there.

Diagnosis of Dementia

The diagnosis of dementia depends much on the Dementia symptoms, though not completely. If the symptoms are not enough to ensure that the patient has been affected by Dementia, there are some tests that can ensure the proper diagnosis. Some of these tests are mini mental state examination, modified mini mental state examination and abbreviated mental test. There are also some other tests that can be helpful ion diagnosing Dementia. The best among these is the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly. Formal neuropsychological tests are also done for diagnosing this disorder. Let us now focus on the treatment for dementia. The interesting thing is that some types of dementia are irrecoverable while the others can be coped with proper treatment. The irrecoverable types cannot be treated since there is no effective treatment option. For the treatable types, cholinesterase inhibitors are used very often if the disease is diagnosed at an early stage. So far as the medication for Dementia is concerned, tacrine, galantamine, donepezil and rivastigmine are some of the medicines that are generally prescribed by the doctors. These are also approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Various antidepressant drugs and antipsychotic drugs are also suggested, depending upon the cause of the disorder. Amyloid deposit inhibitors are also used for treating dementia.