Can Stress Cause Dementia Symptoms

Alcohol Or Illicit Drugs

Drinking alcohol or using illicit drugs can impair your memory, both in the short term and long term. From blackouts to an increased risk of dementia years later, these substances can significantly harm your memory, among many other things. Too much alcohol can also cause Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, which if treated immediately, may be able to be partially reversed in some people.

Ways Anxiety Increases Your Risk Of Dementia

In a review of four studies that looked at over 40,000 participants, researchers found a positive connection between moderate to severe anxiety and the likelihood of developing dementia within 10 years.

Learn more about the four ways that anxiety can increase your risk of dementia and the steps that you can take to keep your brain healthier.

How Anxiety Increases Your Risk Of Dementia

Does anxiety increase your risk of dementia? Or is anxiety an early sign of dementia? A recent study by Amy Gimson, a researcher at the University of Southamptons Faculty of Medicine, suggests that it is, indeed, anxiety that increases your risk of dementia.

In a review of four studies that looked at over 40,000 participants, researchers found a positive connection between moderate to severe anxiety and the likelihood of developing dementia within 10 years.

Here are the four big ways that anxiety may increase your risk of dementia and what you can do to keep your brain healthier:

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Can Dogs Get Dementia Signs Symptoms And Stages

Vet approved

Most people are familiar with dementia in humans, but did you know it can also affect your dog? Canine Cognitive Decline , or Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome , is the veterinary term for dog dementia, and it exhibits similar symptoms and signs as humans.

As our canine companions live longer lives, we see more signs of dog dementia. Studies indicate that as much as 62 percent of dogs between the ages of 11 and 16 demonstrate signs of dementia.

Learn more about dog dementia, the signs and symptoms to look out for, and when to seek veterinary care.

Can Stress Cause Alzheimer’s

Alzheimers is a neurodegenerative disorder that starts most commonly in old age. It is the most common cause of dementia and the sixth leading cause of deaths in the United States.

Many studies conducted on animals have suggested that stress can cause Alzheimers and worsen its progression. However, whether it causes Alzheimers in humans is yet to be established.

A few theories have been proposed that suggest stress plays a role in the development of Alzheimers.

Activation of hypothalamuspituitaryadrenal axis

Stress activates the HPA axis that stimulates the release of the stress hormone cortisol from the adrenal gland. Cortisol is an important hormone that is secreted in response to fear and stress. However, if the body is exposed to persistent or chronic stress, high cortisol levels can affect the immune system of the body. They can alter various physiological processes and make you prone to depression, anxiety and early-onset dementia. They can directly affect the pathological processes of Alzheimers. Cortisol, in excess, is found to damage the memory center of the brain. High levels of cortisol may reduce the ability to learn and retain new information .

Deposition of beta-amyloid in the brain

Scientists have suggested that behavioral, psychological or pharmacological strategies aimed at increasing resilience to stress might delay the onset or slow the progression of Alzheimers.

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Fatigue And Sleep Deprivation

The benefits of getting a good night’s sleep are many: Less weight gain, more energy, and the ability to think more clearly. Being tired because you didn’t sleep well last night and being chronically short on sleep both have been shown to affect memory and learning. It’s worth trying some easy ways to improve your sleep habits.

Behavioral Symptoms Associated With Dementia

In addition to the cognitive symptoms, most people with dementia exhibit what are called neuropsychiatric or neurobehavioral syndromes, more commonly known as behavioral and psychological symptoms. These symptoms can have a range of manifestations such as depression, anxiety, irritability, apathy, agitation or aggression, pacing, sleep disturbances, hallucinations, paranoia, and delusions. Apathy and social withdrawal are often apparent early in the disease course and become increasingly common with disease progression. In the case above, Mr. R first demonstrated apathy and decreased interest in social activities, and went on to develop anxiety, irritability, verbal outbursts, and pacing these are examples of neuropsychiatric symptoms.

It is very common for patients with dementia to have one or more neuropsychiatric symptoms. For example, depression is seen in up to 40% of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and apathy occurs in up to 90% of patients in the later stages of the disease. Visual hallucinations are present in half of patients with Lewy-body dementia, which is also frequently accompanied by agitation or even physical aggression. Together with the cognitive symptoms of dementia, neuropsychiatric symptoms lead to an increased need for hospitalization and/or placement of patients in nursing facilities, as well as significant emotional distress and worsening quality of life for patients and their families.

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Managing Common Reactions And Feelings

We asked some people about their reactions and feelings about living with dementia. Here are some of their comments:

Denial: “Sometimes I think they made a mistake, I don’t have Alzheimer’s disease. I’m still functioning.”

Anger: “It angers me that I can’t pull myself up.”

Anxiety: “I’m scared about losing my abilities.”

Guilt: “I feel guilty, like a dead weight around my husband’s neck.”

Frustration: “I start talking to people, then I forget what I’m talking about it blocks me.”

Hurt: “If I make a mistake, don’t correct me. That hurts.”

Humour: “I have to laugh. That’s therapy. If I didn’t laugh, I would cry.”

Sadness: “I feel the end of something.”

Depression: “It’s all black.”

Loneliness: “You are not in the circle but on the outside.”

Acceptance: “I take it as it comes at this stage of the game.”

Hope: “You have to fight. Hang on. One of these days they will find a cure.”

Experiencing this range of emotions is a normal reaction to having a disease whose symptoms affect the way you see yourself. As one person with Alzheimerâs disease says, âYour inner world is changing.â

Dementia And Hallucinations And False Ideas

• Do not argue it is better to acknowledge that the person may be frightened by the delusions and hallucinations.
• Do not scold the person for losing objects or hiding things.
• Investigate suspicions to check their accuracy.
• Attempt to distract the person if possible.
• Try to respond to the underlying feelings that may be at the bottom of the statements that the person makes.

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Managing Emotions And The Stress Of Living With Dementia

Living with dementia is not easy. You will go through a variety of emotions â and that’s normal. This page provides strategies used by people living with dementia that can help you handle the emotional toll that dementia can bring.

The information on this page is also available to read in a print-friendly PDF. Download the first part of our booklet: Emotions. This information is also available to listen to as an mp3: Emotions .

Assessment Of Chronic Stress

The Life Events and Difficulties Schedule is a semistructured interview in which the participant reviewed a list of events and difficulties divided into categories to identify potentially stressful experiences during the 12 months prior to baseline and 6 months prior to each follow-up visit. The LEDS is based on the premise that experiences that cause considerable long-term threat are likely to be associated with medical and psychiatric disorders. It emphasizes the chronicity of ongoing difficulties , as well as discrete events serious enough to cause long-term threat. Following methods previously described , the interviewer probes for information about event context and constructs a detailed description used by a trained professional to determine degree of threat for each event and difficulty. Only those experiences determined to be severely threatening events or marked difficulties over the long-term receive a high stress rating.

Cortisol measures

Sampling cortisol in saliva is a reliable, non-invasive method to assess circulating cortisol levels , and HPA axis function. Cortisol has been shown to be highly stable under a broad range of handling and temperature storage conditions -.

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Could Anxiety Lead To Dementia

A recent study suggests that living with moderate to severe anxiety in midlife may lead to dementia in later years.

The new research was carried out by a team of scientists led by Amy Gimson, a researcher at the University of Southamptons Faculty of Medicine in the United Kingdom.

Gimson and her colleagues observed that more and more studies were highlighting a link between mental health problems and late-onset dementia the most prevalent form of dementia, which affects people around the age of 65.

For instance, the authors of the new study write that depression has been shown to boost the risk of Alzheimers by almost twofold.

Anxiety often occurs together with depression, and symptoms of anxiety have often been reported by people years before receiving a diagnosis of dementia.

But until now, it has remained unclear whether these associations mean that anxiety and depression are the first symptoms that appear before the full-blown form of dementia develops, or whether anxiety and depression are independent risk factors.

So, to investigate this, Gimson and her team sifted through 3,500 studies in search of papers that examined the link between midlife depression, with or without anxiety, and late-onset dementia.

The findings of their meta-analysis were published in the journal BMJ Open.

Rodent Models Of Ad Have Disrupted Stress Responses

The majority of studies on stress in AD mouse models have focused on how stress accelerates disease. However, beginning with the first AD mouse model, tg2576 , there have been persistent reports that transgenic AD model strains exhibit aberrant aggressive and anxiety-related behavior . In tg2576 mice this is so profound that transgenic mice will often kill their cage mates male tg2576 mice need to be housed alone . This anxiety phenotype has now been quantitatively described in multiple different transgenic AD models, from mice over-expressing APP carrying FAD mutations to knock-in AD models , FAD transgenic rats , and rats intraventricularly injected with A . In addition to elevated anxiety, young AD model mice are more susceptible to the development of PTSD-like symptoms after trauma exposure, long before amyloid plaque deposition . Because elevated anxiety-related behavior is present in so many independently-generated transgenic mice, it is hard to imagine that this is due to the background strain of any particular transgenic mouse. Rather, APP misexpression must in some way perturb stress-responsive neurons to alter their function, which in mouse is expressed as elevated anxiety-related behavior and stress sensitivity.

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Clinical Signs And Symptoms Of Dementia In Dogs

Veterinarians use the following symptoms to diagnose CCD after ruling out other medical causes.

• Disorientation: Disorientation is one of the most obvious signs of dementia. Dogs with CCD may look confused in their home environments, and may struggle to find their food bowl or the door to go outside. These dogs may also find themselves in a corner or empty room, staring aimlessly. They may show signs of confusion around familiar people or struggle to move around objects in your home.

• Interaction Changes: Dogs with dementia may show less interest in interacting with familiar people or other household pets. Some dogs withdraw, while others become clingier. In some cases, dogs with dementia prefer to be by themselves longer and may become scared or overstimulated easily.

• Sleep/Wake Cycle Disruptions: Dementia causes changes to the sleep/wake cycle in dogs, which can be uncomfortable for them and their human companions. Dogs may struggle to sleep through the night and may bark or pace while the rest of the household is sleeping. When this happens, dogs may experience fear or agitation. As a result of poor nighttime sleep, they may sleep more during the day.

• Changes in Activity Levels: Dogs with dementia may experience a rapid decline in activity levels and less interest in playing or exploring. They may ignore ambient noises like dogs barking, loud noises, or people around them.

• Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Skin disorders

Dementia Stress And Mental Health: Understanding The Connection

Particularly if dementia runs in your family, you may feel fearful about what your future holds. While the news that stress is linked to dementia can cause you to stress about your stress, dont panic just yet. Stress is something you have significant control over. Mounting evidence that its linked to dementia suggests that people might actually be able to lower their dementia risk by lowering their stress.

Studies on the role of stress in dementia are still relatively new. More research will have to test the apparent correlation between dementia and stress. Researchers also dont yet understand how stress might cause dementia. Heres what the research tells us so far:

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Health Conditions With Symptoms Similar To Dementia

These 7 health conditions often cause symptoms similar to dementia in older adults.

Once these conditions are diagnosed and properly treated, the troubling symptoms are usually eliminated.

1. Urinary tract infection Seniors are the most likely group of people to develop a urinary tract infection , something easily treated with antibiotics.

Theyre also the least likely to have typical symptoms like pain during urination, fever, or a frequent urge to go.

Instead, UTI symptoms often show up as a sudden change in behavior. Someone who suddenly cant remember a significant event from last week might have a UTI.

Other signs of an infection include:

• Becoming unusually sleepy or withdrawn

2. Medication side effectsMedications called anticholinergics are commonly used by older adults .

These drugs and their side effects can cause dementia-like symptoms in people without previous cognitive issues.

Thats because anticholinergic drugs block brain chemicals used for learning, memory, and muscle functions.

Older adults already have less of these key brain chemicals because our bodies produce less as we age. And blocking them with drugs makes it even harder for the brain to function properly.

Ask the doctor to do a complete review of all medications and supplements. But DONT start, stop, or change dosage for any medications without first talking with the doctor.

Dementia develops slowly, but delirium starts suddenly.

Going For An Assessment

The list of conditions and problems above isnt everything. Theres a whole range of things that can occasionally cause dementia-like symptoms for some people.

There isnt always a quick answer to the question, Is it dementia or something else? If someone has dementia-like symptoms, the most important thing to do is see their GP for a full assessment.

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Anxiety And Insomnia Medications

Benzodiazepines, a class of medications used to treat anxiety or insomnia, comprise another group that has been linked with cognitive difficulties. Although these medications are truly a blessing for some individuals immobilized by anxiety, their use can be accompanied by sedation and mental slowing. A recent study even suggested that prolonged use of benzodiazepines might be a risk factor for later dementia, although experts have questioned the significance of this finding and clinicians continue to prescribe anti-anxiety medications such as lorazepam or sleeping pills such as temazepam and consider them very beneficial when used properly.

Lack Of Vitamin B12 And Lack Of Thiamine

Vitamin B12 is found in meat, fish, eggs and cheese. Thiamine is also a B vitamin and is found in whole-grain foods, some breakfast cereals, beans and peas, nuts and seeds.

Both are important for a healthy nervous system. If someone doesnt get enough of either of these vitamins, they can have symptoms that could be mistaken for dementia. These include confusion, memory loss, irritability and a change in mental state.

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Early Symptoms Of Dementia

Depending on the symptoms, there are many different types of dementia. The most prominent is Alzheimers disease, according to the National Institute on Aging. Other types are as follows:

• Vascular dementia
• Frontotemporal dementia
• Mixed dementia, or a combination of all types

There are a few typical dementia symptoms. In general, there must be two or more of these symptoms present in a person to label him/her a case of dementia and the signs and symptoms would be severe enough to cause interference with their daily lives. These include

Subtle short-term memory changes

Memory disorder may be an early symptom of dementia. The shifts are often gradual, affecting short-term memory. An older person may not be able to remember the things he had for breakfast. Other short-term memory symptoms include

• Forgetting where they left an object
• Struggling to remember why they entered a room
• Forgetting the way back home
• Forgetting what they were doing on any given time or day

When Should You Worry About Frequent Forgetfulness

Weve all been there. You know what you want to say, but cant remember the word. You forget the name of a favorite movie. Youre about to leave for an appointment, but you cant find your car keys or phone.

Frequent forgetfulness or memory lapses often leave people worrying about dementia, diseases such as Alzheimers or other incurable, progressive conditions. But thats not always the case.

Forgetting why you walked into a room on occasion, difficulty recalling the name of someone you just met or having a word on the tip of your tongue that later comes to you is typically not concerning, said Lyndsay Mentgen, APRN, with OSF HealthCare Illinois Neurological Institute. However, if memory loss starts to affect daily functioning for example, missing appointments or forgetting to take medications further evaluation is recommended.

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