Dementia And Dementia

Many ordinary people have the wrong idea about a condition seen in elderly individuals. To many people, dementia is thought to be a disease that affects the memory of elderly people. They think it is irreversible and inevitable, that it is something the majority of people will face as they get older. Many people also confuse delirium with dementia. Delirium can be caused by illness, malnutrition, or medication, as can dementia, however, delirium describes a person who is less alert, drowsy, and restless, while dementia talks about someone who is fully awake, but still having problems with cognitive functioning. However, dementia is not a disease. The word dementia comes from two Latin words meaning away and mind (Mace and Rabins, 1991, p. 6). Dementia describes a group of symptoms that affect the mind, typically occurring in old age. Changes to the brain occur gradually over time and show no visible changes. Dementia causes impairment and loss of mental power, taking away the ability to complete activities necessary to survive. Dementia affects only about thirteen percent of people over the age of sixty-five, half of which are over the age of ninety (Berk, 2014, p. 582). Most forms of dementia are irreversible and become worse with time, but there are some that can be reversed. Many forms of dementia don’t cause any pain, while some

Some signs of dementia can also be symptoms of other diseases, making misdiagnosis common. The most common sign of dementia is severe memory loss. The amount of loss ranges depending on the severity of the dementia. Individuals may forget the names of people they have known all their lives or what they ate for dinner just hours after eating. People with dementia also have difficulty communicating, organizing, and reasoning. They will begin to lose their ability to carry out ADLs, or activities of daily living, and as the disease worsens, will most likely be unable to live on their