As dementia affects a person's mental abilities, they may find planning and organizing difficult. Being independent may also become a problem. A person with dementia will therefore usually need help from friends or relatives, including help with decision making. Most types of dementia can't be cured, but if it is detected early there are ways to slow it down and maintain mental function. Dementia is a collection of symptoms including memory loss, personality change, and impaired intellectual functions resulting from disease or trauma to the brain.
People experiencing vascular dementia will, like those with Alzheimer’s disease, have problems with learning, remembering, recognition, planning and problem solving. However, there is a major difference in the two diseases. Alzheimer’s disease tends to affect the whole of the brain and to progress gradually and steadily. Vascular dementia tends to affect only certain areas of the brain, and this means someone may retain more of their abilities – and also more awareness of their condition. Dementia syndrome or ‘mixed dementia’are terms for a condition in which abnormalities characteristic of more than one type of dementia occur simultaneously in the brain.
It is important to encourage to maintain independence. Know the most common types of dementia and their causes. 3.1) The most common causes of dementia are neurodegenerative disease where the brain cells die more quickly than normal which leads to a decline in the persons mental and physical abilities. Dementia can be caused by strokes, brain damage, old age, or it can be hereditary. 3.2) Symptoms of Alzheimer’s; Becoming more confused and forgetful, Mood swings, Becoming withdrawn due to loss of confidence, Having difficulty completing every
Dementia with Lewy Bodies can be closely related to Parkinsons Disease and there is a theory that Dementia with Lewy Bodies interferes with two neurotransmitters called dopamine and acetylcholine which assist in the brains functions. In Frontotemporal dementia – Picks Disease, the brain shrinks in the frontal and temporal lobes and a build of specific protein’s occur in these areas. Once the proteins come together, they become toxic and cause brain cells to die. It is not understood why these proteins build up. There are other dementia types too, namely Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) caused by an abnormal infectious protein call Prion which cause nerve damage to
Dementia can affect the following key functions of the brain: - Temporal lobe - Parietal lobe - Frontal lobe - Occipital lobe - Hippocampus - Cerebrum lobe These all affect the function of: -Memory -Emotion -Cognitive skills -Perception -Behaviour -Communication -Senses and movement 1.3 Explain why depression, delirium and age related memory impairment may be mistaken for dementia. Delirium, age related memory and depression often affect the memory and cognitive impairment, which can be mistaken for dementia. If someone is clinically depressed, their symptoms may be very similar to someone who has got dementia. Delirium, like dementia, is more common in older adults. Depression, delirium and age related memory impairment are all symptoms of dementia.
For example, a victim in an accident resulting in head injury may have difficulty remembering anything new. Concussions are a leading cause to anterograde amnesia. It is also a very common type amongst elderly people battling for of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s. In cases of anterograde amnesia, the damage resides in areas of the hippocampus,
Thalamus – Muscle movement and processing sensory information. Hippocampus – Processes recent memories into stored memory Limbic system - Emotions and smell. 1.3. Explain why depression, delirium and age related memory impairment may be mistaken for dementia Depression is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. A person who is depressed can often show similar signs or symptoms to a person that has 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.
Dementia Awareness 1.1 Explain what is meant by the term Dementia Dementia are the signs and symptoms caused as a result of specific diseases such as Alzheimer’s or a stroke that involve the damaging of brain cells; as the brain cells die the person with a dementia will lose their ability to do things they are used to doing as different parts of the brain are damaged. Dementia affects both older and younger people and the decline in the person will get worse as more brain cells are damaged or die. 1.2 Describe the key functions of the brain that are affected by dementia The main areas of the brain that are affected by dementia in terms of causing difficulties with their functions are: 1) Frontal Lobe – this is the part of the brain that controls behaviour, movement, personality and the interpretation of what is around us 2) Parietal Lobe – this is the part of the brain that controls the language we use, spacial awareness and recognition of places, objects and people. 3) Occipital Lobe – this is the part of the brain that controls eyesight and our ability to see 4) Temporal Lobe – this is the part of the brain that controls our speech, hearing and memory 1.3 Explain why depression, delirium and age related memory impairment may be mistaken for dementia Depression can sometimes be mistaken for dementia because with dementia a person’s behaviour and feeling of well-being can change and cause the person to appear withdrawn and this for example might be mistaken for depression. However, if the person is depressed then it could be the depression not the dementia causing them ill-being.
1.3 Explain why depression, delirium and age-related memory impairment may be mistaken for dementia Because this are symptoms of dementia but the cause for them to happen can be different: - for depression: a person can be depressed but not suffer for dementia; - for delirium: it can be caused by an infection and the person could become confused and suffer with memory loss which are also signs and symptoms of dementia; - for age-related memory impairment: if someone becomes forgetful they might think or others might think they have dementia because a lot of people associate dementia with old age and memory loss but younger people can be affected too. 2. Understand key features of the theoretical models of dementia: 2.1 Outline the medical model of dementia Dementia has to managed and treated rather than the person. 2.2 Outline