Dementia (patient information)

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What is dementia?

How do I know if I have dementia and what are the symptoms of dementia?

Patients with early dementia does not attach importance, just appearing forgetfulness. As the time passes by, people may notice one or more of the following symptoms:

Severe memory loss, such as forget familiar routes, family member's names
Losing interest in things you previously enjoyed
Difficulty communicating
Difficulty reading or writing
Difficulty with performing tasks that take some thought, but that used to come easily,
Difficulty with coordination and motor functions
Inability to reason
Withdrawing from social contact
Personality changes, having depression, agitation, paranoia or hallucinations
Inappropriate behavior

Who is at risk for dementia?

Degenerative: This is the most common cause of dementia, named Alzheimer's disease.
Stroke
Lewy body disease
Parkinson's disease
Multiple sclerosis
Huntington's disease
Pick's disease
Progressive supranuclear palsy
Brain tumors
Brain infection

How to know you have dementia?

Medical history and physical exam
A mental status examination can be used to assess patients' mental function. It includes:

Language function: Whether the patient misuses words or is inability to remember or not
Motor activity function: Whether the patient is unable to perform motor activities even though physical ability remains intact or not
Recognition function: Whether the patient is unable to recognize objects, even though sensory function is intact or not
Executive function: Whether the patient is unable to plan, organize, think abstractly or not

Sometimes the following tests are needed to identify the causes of dementia.

Blood tests: Blood levels of electrolytes, B12, glucose, ammonia, blood gas analysis, liver function, thyroid function, etc.
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis
Electroencephalograph (EEG)
Head CT or MRI

When to seek urgent medical care?

Call your health care provider if symptoms of dementia gets worse. If the patient experiences either of the following symptoms, seeking urgent medical care as soon as possible: