Dementia (patient information)
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What is dementia?
Dementia is not a specific disease. Instead, it is a loss of brain function that occurs with certain diseases. It affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior. Usual causes include Alzheimer's disease, stroke, brain tumors, Lewy body disease, Parkinson's disease, Multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Pick's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. Patients with dementia may show symptoms as progressively memory loss, difficulty communicating, difficulty reading or writing, difficulty with performing tasks that take some thought, difficulty with coordination and motor functions, withdrawing from social contact, personality changes or inappropriate behavior. A mental status examination can be used to assess patients' mental function, including language function, motor activity function, recognition function and executive function. Treatments of dementia include therapeutic schedule for the underlying causes and medications to improve symptoms and slow the progression. There is no preventable measurement for most cases of dementia. When dementia occurs, it usually developes progressively and often decreases patients' quality of life and lifespan.
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:
- Progressively 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:
Treatment options
Treatments of dementia depends on the underlying causes. The goal of treatment is to control the symptoms.
- Treatment of underlying causes, such as stroke, brain tumor
- Meidcations that can improve symptoms and slow the progression of the disease, such as donepezil (Aricept®), galantamine (Reminyl®), and rivastigmine (Exelon®). Tranquilizers and sedatives are used to ease agitation, anxiety, and aggression.
Diseases with similar symptoms
Where to find medical care for dementia?
Directions to Hospitals Treating dementia
Prevention of dementia
Because degenerative is the most common cause, so there is no preventable measurement for most cases of dementia. For vascular dementia, keeping a healthy lifestyle, such as eating a low-fat diet, exercising regularly, quitting smoking, and controlling hypertension and diabetes, may reduce the risk.
What to expect (Outlook/Prognosis)?
When dementia occurs, it usually developes progressively and often decreases patients' quality of life and lifespan.
Copyleft Sources
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000739.htm
http://www.medicinenet.com/dementia/article.htm
http://www.neurologychannel.com/dementia/index.shtml
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/dementias/dementia.htm