...Running Head: DEMENTIA Dementia The many stages of dementia Crystal Pare University of Phoenix Worldwide, there are 35.6 million people diagnosed with dementia and climbs another 7.7 million each year, most cases, over the age of 65. Alzheimer’s, the most widely known symptom of dementia can be detected in a small amount of people, well before they are 65 years of age. There is, as of yet, no cure for Alzheimer’s disease (dementia), and the progressive range of organic brain diseases which are categorized by difficulties of short-term memory and other cognitive insufficiencies. There is very little in the way of treatment at this time, while scientists have been studying this disease for many years, and have started getting a better idea of the disease with constant successes. As dementia becomes more prevalent worldwide, proper diagnosis of the stages of dementia, each defined by its own distinct symptoms and behaviors, is key to providing effective treatment. Dementia is the loss of logical functions such as thinking, memory, and perception that is severe enough to inhibit with a person’s daily operations or functions. Dementia is not a group of symptoms alone, but somewhat a collection of symptoms caused by several diseases or ill conditions. Symptoms can include fluctuations in character, mood, and behavior. Some cases of dementia are treated and even cured because the source itself is correctable. Instances of this include dementia formed by substance...
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...NAME: Carolyn Rabon THESIS: Treatments and therapies used with dementia patients. BACKGROUND: Dementia is a disease that affects the elderly. Although there are at least ten different kinds of dementia, Alzheimer’s is the one that affects most people. In fact, out of every 100 cases of dementia, over sixty percent is Alzheimer’s. There has been much study on treatment and therapy, some with better results than others. Antipsychotic drugs have been used for years and years with little or no change. New treatments and therapy’s now include music with wonderful results. OBJECTIVE: The most controversial treatment for dementia is music rather than antipsychotic drugs that just seem to mask the problem and sometimes with worse results. I plan on showing how useful music can be in the treatment and therapies used on people with this mind crippling disease. SUPPORTING POINTS: Music therapy is a better choice of treatment. 1. Some patients respond by singing. 2. Some people respond by clapping their hands 3. Some people react by dancing Advantages: 1. Treatment is non Invasive 2. In some cases it eliminates the use of antipsychotic drugs 3. It “awakens” some memories long locked away This treatment can help the family or caregivers also: 1. Families are able to keep loved ones home longer 2. Families can see the miracle of recognition of memories long forgot 3. Families can , in some cases, eliminate the need for outside caregiving ...
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...The Devastation of Dementia: Pathophysiology and Case Study Introduction Relatively little is known about dementia, a disease which affects over 35 million people worldwide (Norton, et al., 2012). Early signs and symptoms may be confused with the “normal” aging process. Those with the disease often try to cover up their mental decline in the early stages, making early diagnosis even more difficult. Educating the medical community and the general population about the signs, symptoms and causes of dementia is an important step in seeking out a cure for this fatal disease. Dementia is a general term for a syndrome that is progressive in nature and is marked by deterioration in cognitive function that is greater than what would normally be expected. There are many types of dementia, the most common of which is Alzheimer’s Disease. Alzheimer’s Disease accounts for over 60% of the cases of dementia. Vascular Dementia is the second most common form. Others include Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinsonian Dementia, and Frontotemporal Dementia. There is no cure for any type of dementia, although there are treatments that help lessen the symptoms. Dementia is a progressive disorder and always results in death, either from complications such as falls" or pneumonia or the dementia itself. The number of people with dementia worldwide is expected to reach over 115 million by the year 2050. The current cost of treating dementia is over 1.5 times that of all cancers combined (Hurd...
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...Dementia is progressive deterioration in intellectual function and other cognitive skills, leading to a decline in the ability to perform activities of daily living. Diagnosis is by history and physical examination. Potentially reversible causes of cognitive impairment (e.g., drugs, delirium, and depression) should be excluded. Treatment is with general measures and usually a cholinesterase inhibitor, memantine, or both (Lichtenberg, et al., 2003). The term 'dementia' is used to describe the symptoms of cognitive decline and normal sensorium that occur when the brain is affected by specific diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, stroke and many other rarer conditions. Dementia is not a disease itself but rather a group of symptoms that may accompany certain diseases or conditions. At this time, dementia is irreversible when caused by disease or injury but may be reversible when caused by drugs, alcohol, hormone or vitamin imbalances, or depression. The symptoms of dementia include loss of memory, confusion, and problems with speech and understanding. There is also the loss of intellectual functions (such as thinking, remembering, and reasoning) of sufficient severity to interfere with a person’s daily functioning. Symptoms may also include changes in personality, mood, and behavior. Dementia is also progressive, which means the symptoms will gradually get worse. Each person is unique and will experience dementia in their own way, including how fast...
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...All around the world, the elderly population is growing, and concern for age-related diseases is increasing accordingly. One of the most challenging diseases to treat for both the senior and the physician is dementia. Dementia involves various brain areas and neural networks that lead to changes in the functioning of the brain, which then affect memory, activities of daily living, and the behavior of the patients (Bauer, Kathrin). With dementia comes Alzheimer’s, which is a type of dementia.The skills that tend to deteriorate with these mental illnesses are cognitive skills. Researchers have found that yoga, which is a physical and mental exercise, can help to improve cognitive skills. In fact, epidemiological observational studies have shown...
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...Lewy Bodies Dementia Ashley M. Paille Abstract. There are hundreds of brain disorders that affect the human brain every year. The diseases range from minor to much more severe. This research paper focuses on a complex disease called Lewy Bodies Dementia. This disease is a primary cognitive brain disorder that mimics a previously discovered disease known as Alzheimer’s. Lewy Bodies Dementia was discovered about a decade after Alzheimer’s. The disease is classified as either a degenerative disease or a neurodegenerative disease. Various factors throughout a person’s lifetime will influence the nature and severity of the degeneration of the brain. Signs and symptoms of the disease are extremely vague and often have the presentation of other known cognitive brain disorders. This disease is incurable and is often treated on a case by case basis. It is also treated by trial and error due to the intense side effects of the medications such as drowsiness and confusion. Recent treatments such as the medication, Levodopa, have been made available although they do not cure the disease but rather slow down the progression of the disease. Introduction. Nearly 80% of individuals with Lewy Bodies Dementia will also have brain changes consistent with Alzheimer's disease. (Galvin, Duda, et al., 2010) Secondary to this high statistic, patients are often diagnosed with a non-specific initial diagnosis of Alzheimer's. This diagnostic experience can become extremely frustrating. (Galvin...
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...An Overview of Dementia: How It Has Touched My Life Dementia is an illness that occurs when there is a loss of brain function as a result of the presence of certain diseases. Dementia affects a person’s memory, judgment, behavior, thinking, and language. Dementia includes Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and tends to increase the most from the age of 65. Various references and literature in reference to dementia indicate that the number of patients with dementia will increase significantly as society ages, especially within the next three decades. Dementia causes significant family issues and can become a financial burden on patients and their family members. These burdens impair the ability of a person to function independently and also have a tremendous impact on his or her relationships and quality of life. The subject of this paper will discuss an overview of dementia, treatments of dementia, how it affects human lives, and also the affect dementia has had on the life of the writer of this paper An Overview of Dementia: How It Has Touched My Life As a child growing up in the early 1970s, the writer of this paper can recall his neighborhood. It was peaceful and had a several people who were known elderly and considered as senior citizens. The writer of this paper also remembers when the adults of the neighborhood would speak of the elderly and tend to talk the most about their strange behaviors. Although this was often the case, the talk of...
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...DEMENTIA’S Dementia is a vague term used to describe a person that has loss of memory and change in behavior and activities. It goes beyond the forgetfulness and absent minded. It is commonly used In reference to the elderly, when cognitive abilities start to slip from one’s own control. Dementia cannot be diagnosed due to memory loss alone. It must be accompanied by two or more interruptions of brain function. Individuals who suffer from a disease that causes dementia undergo a number of changes. Simple daily tasks such as dressing or bathing may also become a problem. Anything can be a cause for dementia, a stroke, a car accident or even another disease. Here, I will compare four most frequent causes of dementia with four least frequent causes. Dementia is not a specific disease. It's an overall term that describes a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person's ability to perform everyday activities. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of cases. Vascular dementia, which occurs after a stroke, is the second most common dementia type. But there are many other conditions that can cause symptoms of dementia, including some that are reversible, such as thyroid problems and vitamin deficiencies. Dementia is often incorrectly referred to as "senility" or "senile dementia," which reflects the formerly widespread but incorrect belief that serious mental decline is a normal part of aging. Dementia is...
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...She, a person seventy-one years old, had been able to live alone for eleven years perfectly fine. No one thought that this would happen. Dementia takes the lives of healthy, hard working, and amazing people; just like it did to Esther Welp. Those affected by this disease have these: memory loss, executive dysfunction, spatial disorientation, personality changes, trouble communicating, and appearance change(Shea). They lose the ability to do everyday normal tasks such as bathing, cooking, and using the restroom that people sometimes take for granted. Dementia can be caused from many different reasons, and it possible to treat it in multiple ways or even completely healed. Studies have been able to prove that aging, genetic diseases, infections, trauma, tumors, strokes, nutritional deficiencies, and diseases cause memory, cognitive decline, and personality changes; otherwise known as dementia(Shea). All of these can induce the damage of brain cells. This damage causes the inability for brain cells to correspond with one another. The brain has specific regions and each has its own job. When the cells in...
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...Dementia is the progressive decline of memory that affects a person’s ability to perform everyday tasks such as reasoning. Alzheimer’s is when dementia symptoms deteriorate and people lose the ability to carry on conversations and interact with the environment. Some symptoms include memory loss, mental decline, personality changes, as well as anxiety. It is estimated that 1 in 10 people 65 years or older has dementia or Alzheimer’s. Hypothesis In this article, scientist study whether self-reported memory failure is accurate in reporting early sign of dementia and Alzheimer’s in patients. It is important to be able to detect early sign of dementia disorders so that scientist can find effective medical treatments to slow down the process. In the study, the purpose was to investigate relationship between subjective memory and incident dementia. Subjective memory is an...
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...Dementia are usually diagnosed clinically from the history of the patients, relatives and from the clinical observations, based on the presence of characteristics neurological and neuropsychological features and the absence of alternative conditions. computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography and single emission computed tomography are the advanced medical imaging techniques, which could be used to help and exclude other cerebral pathology or subtypes of the dementia thus this may help to predict the type of dementia that can be converted from one type to another that means from one stage to the other stage of dementia. Thus, some of the assessment can be done to know the intellectual functioning, which may...
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...called dementia is a strong possibility. Another diagnosis a doctor can give you is Alzheimer's. It is horrible to have always have something interfering with your daily life. Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia in people all over the world. (What is Dementia?, No Page.) Dementia is a very common disease throughout the entire world. (Dementia, No Page.) Dementia can be very dangerous if necessary safety precautions are not taken. (What is Dementia?, No Page.) Dementia is a very common disease around the world so we need to know what exactly...
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...Stimulation in Dementia” discusses an alternative to handling behavioral problems in senior citizen who suffer from dementia. More often than not, older individuals with dementia will experience symptoms often attributed to psychiatric patients. These include anxiety, hostility, wandering, depression, delusions, disrupted sleep, and hallucinations. The most common form of treatment for such symptoms is either institutional care or behavioral treatment. In addition to either of these approaches, however, patients often receive drugs such as antipsychotics or other sedatives in order to alleviate the effects of the dementia. The problem here is that these neuroleptics and similar drugs almost always come with their own respective side effects, including a general decrease in quality of life. One main concern here is that patients who are receiving such drugs to control their symptoms are often the patients who are already experiencing low qualities of life as is because their dementia symptoms are generally so severe. Other recent attempts at treatment include snoezelen, which is another name for controlled multisensory stimulation, where patients are exposed to a soothing and stimulating environment. In this environment, they will receive varied sensory stimulation in the forms of fiber optic lighting effects, color, sounds, music, or smells. The light treatment and aromatherapy have emerged as the two most promising approaches among these in the treatment of dementia. In fact...
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...Abstract Frototemporal Dementia (FTD), also known as Frototemporal Degeneration is a series of progressive malfunction of the front and/ or temporal lobes of the brain. It can be bilaterally or unilaterally. It is a type of dementia (deterioration of cognitive function) that affects the function of the frontal and temporal lobes. The disorder has distinct qualities like Alzheimer’s disease. In the US it is described as “progressive aphasia”, and in the UK it is know under the term “frontotemporal dementia”. The disorder has limited medications and therapy plays a big role in managing the symptoms of total deterioration of the health of people who are suffering from FTD. This paper discusses the pathology, epidemiology, etiology, signs and...
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...Falls with dementia residents in long-term facilities have been a main concern. With all the proper fall prevention in place and no environmental factors exist, falls still occur. Head injuries, hip dislocations, fractures, wounds, and death can be related to incidence of falls with this population. These injuries decrease the quality of life in dementia patients. Agitation is found to be the dominate cause of falls in dementia patients. Research has shown that music therapy reduced to reduce falls in this population by reducing agitation. Recommendations Several studies have been evaluating music therapy on dementia patients. Studies have concluded that the use of music has shown a significant reduction of falls with dementia patients by decreasing agitation and creating a relaxed atmosphere. It has been recommended that music be played during peek agitation hours for that particular patient. This can be done by observing the patient and documenting when and how agitation starts. Once this process has been well documented, implementing music therapy should be done. Combined recommendations have shown that the iPod conceived the greatest results. If iPods are not readily available or too costly, then considerations of mini radios with head phones would be an ideal replacement. Implementation...
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