Dementia Adult Health and Social Care Level 3

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Understanding the neurology of dementia 1a Describe a range of causes of dementia syndrome. Causes of dementia include: Alzheimer’s disease, vascular (multi-Infarct) disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, fronto-temporal dementia (including pick’s disease), alcohol-related dementia (including Korsakoff’s syndrome) and Aids-related dementia. Dementia is caused by damage to the brain cells. The brain is built up of different areas that is responsible for different functions i.e. memory, judgement and movement. When brain cells in one of these regions are damaged and cannot communicate normally, then thinking, behaviour and feelings can become affected. The causes of dementia depends on the age at which symptoms begin. Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia. About 75% of people who are diagnosed with dementia will have either Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia, or a combination of the two. There less common forms of dementia include dementia with Lewy bodies, fronto-temporal dementia (Pick’s disease), Huntington’s disease, alcohol-related dementias, and HIV/AIDS-related dementia. Alzheimer’s usually affects the elderly population and is a degenerative neurogical disorder and genetic factors are considered the greatest factors in the development of the disease. This conditions begins gradually and worsens progressively over several years. It is caused by nerve cells dying in certain areas of the brain and the connections between the affected nerve cells deteriorate. As the conditions affecting only or primarily the neurons of the brain, causes gradual but irreversible loss of functions of these cells, Memory loss is one of the earliest symptoms of this disease. Vascular dementia is caused by damage to the brain through deprivation of oxygenated blood causing part or all of the affected area to die. (Series of strokes) Conditions that can cause

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