Dementia which begins gradually and worsens progressively over several years is usually caused by neurodegenerative disease that is, by conditions affecting only or primarily the neurons of the brain and causing gradual but irreversible loss of function of these cells. Less commonly, a non-degenerative condition may have secondary effects on brain cells, which may or may not be reversible if the condition is treated. The causes of dementia depend on the age at which symptoms begin. In the elderly population, a large majority of cases of dementia are caused by Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia or both. It is rare to have dementia in young people 1.2 Describe the types of memory impairment commonly experienced by individuals with dementia.
Less commonly, a non-degenerative condition may have secondary effects on brain cells, which may or may not be reversible if the condition is treated. The causes of dementia depend on the age at which symptoms begin. In the elderly population, a large majority of cases of dementia are caused by Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia or both. It is rare to have dementia in young people 1.2 Describe the types of memory impairment commonly experienced by individuals with dementia. The memory impairment may result in lack of attention, forgetting language, forgetting names and identity of friends and relatives and lose of ability to solve problems.
Dementia Awareness Understand what dementia is. 1) Dementia is where there is a decline of the brain and its abilities, it is caused when the brain is damaged by disease, for example, Alzheimer’s disease, damage to the brain or a series of strokes. There are several types of dementia these include, vascular, Alzheimer’s, lewy bodies, fronto-temporal. 2) Areas affected by dementia are memory loss, speed of thinking, mental agility, language, understanding and judgement. 3) Other conditions such as depression and delirium both have similar symptoms as dementia.
Generally, this type of amnesia is temporary, and gradually restoration of memory is very common. The areas of the brain that are impaired in retrograde amnesia, the hippocampus, the temporal lobe, and the prefrontal cortex, are associated with primarily declarative and episodic memory. Apparently what occurs is that the brains consolidation process is disrupted; therefore, that area of the brain loses memory of events that were not fully stored. In contrast, anterograde amnesia refers to the loss of memory from the time of the injury, or illness, forward. For example, a victim in an accident resulting in head injury may have difficulty remembering anything new.
The most common symptom of AD is dementia. The most familiar form of dementia is forgetfulness but
Unit: Dementia Awareness This unit must be assessed in accordance with Skills for Care and Development’s Assessment Principles. Learning Outcome 1: Understand what dementia is Assessment Criteria 1.1. Explain what is meant by the term ‘dementia’ Dementia is a term used to describe a range of signs and symptoms that occur when the brain is affected. Chemical and structural changes in the brain damage and kill brain cells, dementia is a progressive disease and this simply means that the symptoms will gradually get worse. Neurons and synapses become damaged by dementia they may be unable to carry messages that tell a section of the brain what to do.
In the usual case, the Alzheimer’s dementia syndrome is characterized by early episodic memory decline (eg amnesia) consistent with early neuropathology targeting the medial temporal lobes, with additional deficits in language and semantic knowledge, abstract reasoning, executive functions,attention,and visuospatial abilities that contribute to decline in everyday functions(Salmon and Bondi,2009).A number of performance characteristics on episodic memory measures help differentiate between mildly demented Alzheimer patients and normal older adults. These characteristics include an abnormally high rate of forgetting whereby patients with an early Alzheimer’s disease are particularly impaired on measures of delayed recall; failure to benefit from recognition testing, in which retrieval demands are reduced, indicating storage loss of memory for recently learned information rather than a retrieval deficit; and an abnormal serial position effect characterized by an attenuation of the primary effect(i.e. recall of words from the beginning of a
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.
Understand the process and experience of dementia Definition of dementia is a syndrome usually of a chronic or progressive nature in which there is deterioration in cognitive function, thinking, orientation, comprehension, and calculation, learning capacity, language and judgement. Dementia is caused by damage in brain. The most common cause of dementia is called neurodegenerative diseases that include Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Huntington disease, Front temporal dementia and dementia with lewy bodies. With this disease the brain cell degenerate and die more quickly than normal ageing process, these decline a persons mental and some times physical abilities. The gradual changes and damage to the brain cells are caused by a build up of abnormal proteins in the brain.
UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS AND EXPERIENCE OF DEMENTIA Task A 1. For each of the following forms of dementia, describe: • How is the brain affected • The symptoms an individual might experience. Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain disease. Most patients start exhibiting symptoms after they reach the age of 60. Alzheimer's disease affects the brain through exponentially greater cell death and tissue loss, resulting in a decreased brain size.