Dementia
Nina CNA1 Student
11/17/08
Dementia is loss of mental function and reasoning. Thinking memory and reasoning that is bad enough to interfere with a persons every day life and functioning.
Dementia itself is not a disease, but more like a a group of symptoms brought upon by other diseases. Symptoms can include changes in mood, personality, behavior. Some types of dementia can be cured, if you can cure the cause, example drug abuse. Some types of drugs can cause a severe depression that could appear to be dementia. This sever depression is called pseudo-dementia, or false dementia.
Dementia is caused by changes or damage to the brain. Some changes that could cause dementia are brain injury, tumors, strokes, long term alcohol abuse and some diseases can pull the trigger. There are over 50 types of dementia, just to name a few commonly known are as follows: Parkinson’s, Lewy Bodies, Frontotemporal Dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Vascular Dementia, and Huntington’s Disease.
Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia at a rate of about 60%. Researchers have recently found that two other nervous diseases Pick’s and Lewy Body were and have been diagnosed as Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s Disease(AD) is incurable, degenerative and terminal. AD is usually diagnosed in people over the age of 65. There is also an Early onset AD that can occur earlier in life. Each person experiences AD in their own way. The most commonly early recognized symptom is memory loss. AD is diagnosed with behavioral assessments and cognitive tests, which are then followed by a brain scan. The brain scan will actually show voids in the brain tissue and tangles in the nerve fibers in the brain. As AD worsens so do the personality changes. Advanced AD can cause mood swings, language loss, aggression, withdrawal and eventually their senses will diminish. Slowly body functions are lost and eventually lead to death. People diagnosed with AD usually have a life...