Dementia Vs Delirium

Dementia which is not a single disease is actually a broader term used for the grouping of diseases that all have common symptoms. [3] It is characterized by the worsening of basic functions to a point where it reduces a person’s abilities to perform everyday activities, such as recalling events or speaking. People diagnosed with dementia may also become unaware of where they are or get lost and confused with familiar places such as their own home. Although this is typical with the ageing process dementia significantly worsens these conditions. Dementia is composed of several diseases, the most prominent being Alzheimer’s disease.

There are ma... ... middle of paper ... ...s time in history. In Conclusion, Dementia is the progressive loss of cognitive function. People who suffer from this group of symptoms deal with memory loss, disorientation, and fluctuating feelings. The brain of a person who suffers from Dementia is different in many ways from a healthy brain. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease take a toll on the brain causing shrinkage and tissue loss that accounts for the loss of brain function in some parts.

Plaques and tangles are major features of Alzheimer’s disease, along with nerve cell communication issues within the brain. By the final stage, damage is widespread and brain tissue has shrunk significantly (National Institutes of Health, 2012). Early Signs and Symptoms As dementia of the Alzheimer’s type (DAT) is frequently the cause of dementia in the geriatric population common symptoms, treatments and the efficacy of the treatments will be discussed. Dementia of the Alzheimer’s type is a cognitive impairment, resulting in the inability to learn and retain new inform... ... middle of paper ... ...Abnormal Psychology (15th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Dementia worldwide is a common cause of death for the elderly. Dementia is a syndrome – usually of a chronic or progressive nature – in which there is deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from normal ageing. (WHO). Dementia can affect many things from memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, and calculation, learning capacity, language and even judgment. ““Dementia” is an umbrella term describing a variety of diseases and conditions that develop when nerve cells in the brain die or no longer function normally.

Neurological Etiology Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild memory loss is a neurological disorder that develops due to deterioration of the normal cognitive capability of a person during the aging process. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) can be defined as a condition where an individual suffers a decline in his/her cognitive abilities beyond the expected in normal aging. However, it is important to understand that these abilities are not obviously identified in daily living activities. It is considered to be an intermediate condition between decline in memory in normal aging and severe memory loss, such as dementia. Nonetheless, MCI has also been closely associated with dementia, as it is seen as a progression towards it (Petersen, 2004).

From what I have learned, stimulation and activity can also help people with dementia. It is very important to note that minor memory problems in older people previously attributed to senility may have other causes, such as distraction, fatigue, grief, stress, alcohol, sensory loss, difficulty with concentration or inability to remember many details at once, illness, or medications (Cummings, 1995). Confusion and disorientation caused by these problems may apparently be reversible though. III. Examining Alzheimer's Disease By definition, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an incurable degenerative disease of the brain.

Confusion will be obvious in trying to remember where they are or what they are doing. When Alzheimer’s gets worse, the person will start to notice having trouble in speaking and will also have changes in mood and possibly weird movements. Also, symptoms of Alzheimer's is not recognizing familiar places, faces ... ... middle of paper ... ...can effect many people. It usually effects people that have had parents that have had Alzheimer's. It effects during the older onset between age 65 and older.

To discuss this subject we would discuss the most common form of dementia among old people, the Alzheimer's disease. Dementia is a brain disorder, a loss of intellectual function (thinking, remembering, reasoning), which substantially affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities. Alzheimer's disease (AD), a form of progressive, irreversible dementia with no known cause or cure, first described in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, causes damage to the parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language. The consequences of the disease in terms of the patient's lifestyle are often times confused with the natural syndromes of aging. However, AD is not a normal part of aging.

Dementia can undermine a person’s self-worth and esteem, and affects most aspects of daily living (Preston, Marshall, & Bucks, 2007) affecting one’s quality of life (QOL). Traditionally, the medical model dominated research on dementia, and studies on the lived experiences of people with dement... ... middle of paper ... ...35-341. SABAT, S. R. 2002. Epistemological Issues in the Study of Insight in People with Alzheimer’s Disease. Dementia, 1, 279-293.

The frontal lobe of the brain is responsible for, simply put, impulse control, judgment, memory, language, and much more. When a MS patient has a brain lesion, or a location of the brain that has been heavily damaged, specific functions are affected. The above researchers developed a study to look at the extents of the effects of MS lesions, specifically the white matter of the frontal lobe. In past research, it has been suggested that there may be a threshold where dysfunction of cognitive processes begins. They past research was also deficient in its attempts at looking at frontal lobe lesions, however laid the groundwork that allows for thinking lesion size and location do in fact make a difference in the cognitive differences of MS patients.