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.
Memory is the most common cognitive ability lost with dementia. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (slide 71) is the most common cause of dementia in western countries and Japan, representing more than half of demented patients. Vascular disease is the second most common cause of dementia in the U.S. and Japan. Most common forms of dementia are progressive, and currently there is no effective treatment to stop or reverse the progression of the disease. Incidence of most dementia increases with age.
Functions that are affected by dementia are; Short term Memory loss, Language skills, the ability to interpret information, spatial skills, judgement and attention. These are all affected with the different types of dementia due to which part of the brain is affected. Depression, Delirium and age related memory impairment may be mistaken for dementia as the individual may present with similar signs and symptoms to dementia. To ensure weather these conditions are dementia or not a full assessment needs to be carried out by a qualified doctor. The medical model of dementia sees dementia as being degenerative with no cure.
With senile dementia, you may have little or no awareness of cognitive problems and you may not know what a car key is or may put it in an inappropriate place. The most common form of senile dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. Senile dementia is often used when referring to individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. According to Rabins (2008), “Older age is the strongest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. The likelihood of developing the disease doubles every 5 years after the age of 65.” In the early stages of Alzheimer’s or senile dementia, short-term memory is affected first.
Alzheimer’s (AD) is a brain disease in which the brain begins to deteriorate. There are no direct causes of this disease but there are many factors that impact it. One is more likely to develop this disease if they contain a certain allele called the APOE epsilon4 allele. Risks are increased if one is older, female, has history of high blood pressure and head trauma, and has relatives with the disease. There are two types of AD, early onset and late onset.
Most people who suffer with it are over 65 but there are 150,000 people under 65 who also suffer with it. There are 55 types of dementia however 10 of these are the most progressive, 3 of which are the most common and severe. There is currently no cure. Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common case of dementia affecting around 465,000 people in the UK. It is a physical condition affecting the brain.
Dementia can affect adults of all ages and can often be confused with delirium. Delirium is a temporary decline in function of the brain that can be restored when the underlying cause is treated. Dementia is a progressive, non-curable process that is detrimental to both the person suffering from the disease but also the care takers. It is important as a nurse to be familiar with dementia and also to be educated on the different treatments used as many of these patients end up not only in nursing homes but also in the emergency department and medical-surgical floors of local hospitals. There is a growing
alzheimers.org.uk Rarer causes of dementia Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, but there are many rarer diseases and syndromes that can lead to dementia, dementia-like symptoms or mild cognitive impairment. Rarer forms of dementia account for around only 5 per cent of all dementia cases in the UK. This factsheet outlines some of these rarer causes and gives some ideas about where to go for more specialist advice and information. This factsheet covers the following rarer causes of dementia: • Corticobasal degeneration • Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease • HIV-related cognitive impairment • Huntington’s disease • multiple sclerosis • Niemann-Pick disease type C • normal pressure hydrocephalus • Parkinson’s disease • posterior cortical atrophy • progressive supranuclear palsy. For information about other types of dementia, please see the following factsheets: • What is Alzheimer’s disease?
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.
NFCE Level 3 Preparing to work in Adult Social Care Unit 13 understand the process and experience of dementia 1.1 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.