Dealing with dementia
Dementia, more commonly known as memory loss, is a disease seen in elderly individuals. It includes a broad category of diseases involving the brain which leads to forgetfulness , a reduction in the ability to think and reason, which eventually ends up hampering the life of an indiviual.
Globally, about 46 million people are suffering from dementia . Out of all the different kinds of dementia, Alzheimer's disease affects about 50 to 70 per cent of the patients diagnosed with dementia.
Alzheimer's is named after the German psychiatrist Dr Alois Alzheimer ,who noticed changes in the brain tissue of a woman who died of unusual symptoms such as forgetfulness and behavioural abnormalities. This is a neurodegenrative disease which is rapidly progressive. It usually affects elderly individuals, above the age of 65, with majority of individuals over 85 years old .It is characterised by progressive memory loss that severely affects their day-today activities.
Early symptoms include memory impairment, repeatedly misplacing items such as phones and money, confusing names of relatives and friends, frequently getting lost in familiar surroundings, difficulty carrying out calculations, and the like.
The early signs may persist for many years before the patient visits the right doctor for consultation. This is a insiduously progressive disease but the rate of progession varies from person to person.
However, more severe symptoms include behavioural abnormalities including aggression ,agitation ,irritability , confusion, requirement of considerable support to dress ,eat and carry out other basic tasks, withdrawl from society, inability to control bowel and bladder movements, inability to communicate effectively and seizures.
Currently, there is no definite investigation modality available to diagnose Alzheimer's disease but with accurate and complete medical history of the patient, it can be diagnosed by a neurologist with upto 90 per cent accuracy.
The progression of the disease can be quantified by various dementia scales available like Mini Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assesment and Clinical Dementia rating scale.
Brain imaging, preferably MRI, is required for evaluation of Alzheimer's and also for ruling out other stuctural causes of dementia. With Alzheimer's, there is significant cortical atrophy of medial temporal lobe, which is its characteristic finding . The functional neuroimaging methods like FDG-PET, SPECT may be helpful in delineating the disease .
As there is no available sure for Alzheimer's, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including increase in physical activity and the adoption of a healthy diet may delay the progression of the disease.
Other things one can do is keep a check of vascular risk factors, hypertension and diabetes Cognitive training and symptomatic treatment is usually the best way to fight dementia.