Dementia and Alzheimer’s Research Analysis Paper
Part 1: Introduction
The topic I am writing about is memory loss or more specifically: Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Modern medicine has improved significantly in the last decade and the average human lifespan has been extended. However, since humans are living longer, there is also an increased susceptibility for chronic diseases as opposed to infectious diseases. A chronic disease that is slowly on the rise is Alzheimer’s, as it is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. This topic is important to me because I’ve had numerous encounters with patients with dementia and have seen the impact it has on many families and friends. Additionally, the brain is arguably the most important organ in our body; therefore diseases that affect the brain usually cause irreversible damage.
Dementia encompasses a wide category of brain diseases that cause long term loss of the capacity to think and reason to the extent in which it is severe enough to affect a person's basic functions. Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia and makes up for up to eighty percent of dementia cases. There are many risk factors for Alzheimer’s but greatest known risk factor is increasing age. The majority of people with this illness are 65 and older but there are also some cases where there is early onset as well. Like all chronic diseases, Alzheimer’s symptoms gradually worsen throughout the years. The average survival rate of those with Alzheimer’s is eight years and unfortunately, there is no current cure for this disease. However, there are treatments available to lessen the severity of the symptoms and to increase the quality of life of Alzheimer’s patients.
Alzheimer...
... middle of paper ...
...between healthy older adults and patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Thaut, M. H., Peterson, D. A., & McIntosh, G. C. (2005). Temporal entrainment of cognitive functions: Musical mnemonics induce brain plasticity and oscilla-tory synchrony in neural networks underlying memory.Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences,1060, 243–254
Teng EL, Hasegawa K, Homma A, Imai Y, Larson E, Graves A, Sugimoto K, Yamaguchi T, Sasaki H, Chiu D Int Psychogeriatr. 1994 Spring; 6(1):45-58; discussion 62.
The Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI): a practical test for cross-cultural epidemiological studies of dementia.
Wilson RS, Barnes LL, Mendes de Leon CF, Aggarwal NT, Schneider JS, Bach J, Pilat J, Beckett LA, Arnold SE, Evans DA, Bennett DA Depressive symptoms, cognitive decline, and risk of AD in older persons. Neurology. 2002 Aug 13; 59(3):364-70.
Kaplan, H. I., Sadock, B. J., & Grebb, J. A. (1994). Synopsis of psychiatry: behavioral sciences,
What is Alzheimer ? Is Alzheimer 's more difficult for the patient or for the patient’s siblings?
...g conditions that mimic the outward signatures of dementia, which were thought to be reserved for Alzheimer’s disease, or other mind altering conditioned patients. It has been shown that depression, while treatable and not directly related to dementia, can exhibit the very same signs and should be carefully examined and studied before rushing to judgement.
Doctors need a sure way to diagnose the disease before treatment or studies can be done. The diagnosis is an autopsy of brain tissue examined under a microscope. In addition, medical history, a physical exam, and mental status tests are used for diagnosis (Posen, 1995). Often, tests are done to rule out other potential causes of the dementia. This allows the identification of other causes of thinking and behavioral changes to be made before concluding that the patient has Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. The tests that are requested to be done include CT and MRI scans to rule out strokes or brain tumors which could account for change in memory and behavior; thyroid and psychological tests which can also detect thinking and behavior problems (Posen, 1995).
CHARACTERISTICS AND EPIDEMIOLOGY OF DEMENTIA. (2002). In Encyclopedia of the Human Brain. Retrieved from https://hodges.idm.oclc.org/login?
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Rector, N. A. (2011). Abnormal psychology. (2 ed., p. 297, 321, 322,
Worldwide, 35.6 million people have dementia and there are 7.7 million new cases every year (WHO 2012). There are ma...
Alzheimer’s disease was found more than a century ago but still there is little known and understood about the disease. AD attacks the medial temporal lobes which interferes with memory and the ability to reason and pay attention. (Wierenga and Bondi, 2011). People with AD also have increased atrophy of brain tissue and the brain is clogged with neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques which are both believed to produce Alzheimer’s symptoms by disrupting the impulses between neurons (Sue et al. 2013). A look into what it feels like to have AD may give a better representation of how the person feels and how their loved ones feel.
Nurnberger JI Jr, Wiegand R, Bucholz K, O'Connor S, Meyer ET, Reich T, Rice J, Schuckit M, King L, Petti T, .Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2004 Dec; 61(12):1246-56.
AD involves parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language. People with AD may have trouble remembering recent conversations, names or events is often an early clinical symptom. An online article by Medline Plus suggest that later symptoms include impaired communication, poor judgment, disorientation, confusion, behavior changes and difficulty speaking, swallowing and walking.
Alzheimer’s disease is rising at a very high rate. “The number of new cases per year is estimated at 360,000 equating to 980 new cases per day or 40 new cases every hour” (Cummings and Cole 1) This evidence shows that an increasing number of people will discover the effects of a cognitive impairment that will most likely be due to Alzheimer’s disease. As people age, their risk of being diagnosed with this disease increases ...
Philadelphia, USA: Churchill Livingstone. Kerr, D. (2007). The 'Standard'. Understanding Learning Disability and Dementia: Developing Effective Interventions (1st ed.). London, UK: Jessica Kingsley.
It was a pleasant day at the Dementia unit and I was assigned to care for a lady whom we can call Miss K. She is a lovely, warm and nice lady who was recently admitted to the Dementia unit two weeks ago. I went to her room to meet her, I introduced myself, greeted her and gave her a hand shake for me to establish rapport. She was very cooperative, participative and independent with her cares. From my observation, I noticed that she is very organised and very particular when it comes to cleanliness. She also wakes up early in the morning and makes sure that all of the things that she needs for morning care are neatly arrange in the bathroom. When having a shower, she cleans her body very well. She also brushes her teeth and cleans her dentures very well. She always likes to wear red coloured clothes and red floral nighties. Before leaving her room, she makes sure that her glasses are clean before wearing it, her used clothes are neatly kept in the empty drawer and she wants to have a handkerchief in her pocket. I also noticed that there is always a glass
Davison, G. D., Neale, J. M., & Kring, A. M. (2004) Abnormal Psychology (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Cooper, Belle. " How Music Affects and Benefits Your Brain."lifehacker.come. N.p., 11 22 2013. Web. 3