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What Are The Early Signs Of Senile Dementia

What Are The Symptoms Of Senility

What are the early signs of Dementia? – Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Senility symptoms are many of the physical changes associated with old age:

  • Stooped posture

There are also mental changes associated with senility:

  • Impaired judgment
  • Loss of memory
  • Sometimes childish behavior

The actual psychological changes are thought to be related to aging of the cortical brain cells. Whereas the physical changes associated with aging occur in all individuals to some extent, evidence of psychological degeneration is not universal. In common usage, the term senility is applied only to mental deterioration.

Other Types Of Dementia

Other progressive forms of dementia include frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, and vascular dementiaand it’s also possible to have a combination of dementia types.

Frontotemporal Dementia

With frontotemporal dementia, nerve cells in the parts of the brain involved in behavior, communication, and personality begin to degenerate. Thus, people with this condition typically have symptoms that impact how they behave, reason, or communicate. Movement is also affected.

Lewy Body Dementia

In Lewy body dementia, wads of protein accumulate in the brain. These proteins can also be found in patients with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. People with this form of dementia might hallucinate, have trouble concentrating, or experience difficulty with physical coordination and movement.

Vascular Dementia

Vascular dementia is second only to Alzheimers in its prevalence in people with dementia. It occurs as a result of problems with the blood vessels that involve the brain. While people with this form of dementia may have difficulty with recall, their most obvious symptoms are likely to be trouble with organization, reasoning, concentration, and thinking quickly.

A Personal Alarm Built With Dementia In Mind

If you care for someone with dementia, you may want to consider a system like the CPR Guardian Smartwatch. This light and stylish watch is often preferred by elderly relatives who are used to wearing a watch every day. The CPR Guardian can pair with a carers smartphone, enabling them to find out the wearers GPS location and communicate with the wearer directly through the watch. The watch also comes with an SOS button that alerts the carer directly when pressed. It can even monitor the wearers heart rate! All of these features mean that there is always a way to keep track of your relative with dementia, make sure theyre okay, and be alerted if there is ever a problem.

Sponsored by CPR Guardian

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Most Common Symptoms Of Dementia

Dementia is a group of conditions that impact memory, thinking, and social skills. To be diagnosed with dementia, a person’s symptoms have to impede routine functioning and reflect a drastic decline in mental capability. Early diagnosis may help slow the speed at which the condition progresses, but there is no cure for dementia. Treatment and medication may help reduce the intensity of symptoms, but their effect is usually minor.

What Medications Treat Dementia Symptoms

Senile or Old Dementia

Dementia treatment focuses on correcting all reversible factors and slowing irreversible factors. Some of the important drug treatment strategies in dementia are described. Except for the cholinesterase inhibitors, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved any drug specifically for dementia. The drugs listed here are some of the most frequently prescribed from each class.

Slowing the progression of dementia

Dementia due to some conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, can sometimes be slowed in the early-to-intermediate stages with medication. Many different types of medications have been or are being tried in dementia. The medications that have worked the best so far are the cholinesterase inhibitors.

Treating depression

Because depression is so common in people with dementia, treatment of depression can at least partially relieve symptoms.

  • Depression is usually treated with any of a group of drugs known as antidepressants.
  • The most important of these are the drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors , for example, Fluoxetine , sertraline , paroxetine , citalopram .
  • Stimulant drugs such as methylphenidate may sometimes be used to treat depression in people with dementia.
  • Some of the medications that treat depression also help with anxiety.

Correcting drug doses and/or withdrawing misused drugs

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What Are The Causes Of Senility

Alzheimers disease is the most common cause of senility. This disease begins with difficulty learning or remembering recent events.

Major depression can also cause senility. Therefore, a person showing signs of Alzheimers disease should be tested to confirm diagnosis.

Brain disorders can also lead to senility. These disorders may be caused by trauma, illness, or infection. A variety of conditions, such as Parkinsons disease, Picks disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, vascular dementia, Huntingtons disease, strokes, Down syndrome, head trauma, dementia with Lewy bodies, and AIDS can also cause senility. In each of these cases, senility is generally not reversible.

Other diseases or illnesses that can cause senility are sometimes treatable. These include hypothyroidism, depressive pseudodementia, tumors, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and deficiencies in vitamins B1, B12, and A. Individuals who abuse drugs and alcohol are also at an increased risk of developing senility. Similarly, individuals who inhale paint or other substances in order to get high may develop senility.

Over-medication or dehydration may also cause a person to exhibit signs of senility and lead to a false diagnosis of Alzheimers disease.

What Medications Are Available To Treat Dementia

Drugs approved for the most common form of dementia, Alzheimers disease, are discussed below. These drugs are also used to treat people with some of the other forms of dementia.

  • cholinesterase inhibitors
  • NMDA receptor antagonist memantine

These two classes of drugs affect different chemical processes in the brain. Both classes have been shown to provide some benefit in improving or stabilizing memory function in some patients. Although none of these drugs appear to stop the progression of the underlying disease, they may slow it down.

If other medical conditions are causing dementia or co-exist with dementia, the appropriate drugs used to treat those specific conditions are prescribed.

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Difficulties In Thinking Things Through And Planning

A person may get confused more easily and find it harder to plan, make complex decisions or solve problems.

Early Signs And Symptoms Of Dementia In Men

Recognizing the early Signs of Dementia

Written byDevon AndrePublished onApril 12, 2017

Dementia is a term used to describe significant cognitive impairment. These impairments are often seen in two or more critical brain functions such as memory, language, judgment, and reasoning. Deficiencies in these aspects of cognitive ability can significantly affect a persons daily functioning, making them require constant aid.

The most common form of dementia is Alzheimers disease, but there exist multiple forms of dementia that exhibit a varying degree of symptoms and presentations to help differentiate them from each other. Some of these other forms of dementia include vascular dementia, which may be the result of stroke and vasculitis, and frontal lobe dementia, which is relatively rare and thought to be inherited.

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Senile Dementia In Dogs: Everything You Need To Know

Senile dementia in dogs is an almost inevitable aspect of our best friends natural aging process. Nevertheless, it is possible to take several measures to improve the quality of life even if they have grown old.

The brain is an organ with many jobs. It is responsible for interpreting and translating external stimuli into other organs. It is connected to and controls all the bodys metabolic processes.

A long life is synonymous with many happy moments together. Nevertheless, it also results in fatigue of the bodys physique, psychology and emotions, including the cognitive function of the brain. This rule applies to both humans and dogs.

Putting Things In The Wrong Place

This is different to: more normal age-related behaviours such as losing things but being able to retrace the steps to find them.

Losing things or putting things in strange places, and then being unable to retrace steps to find them again, is on the official observation list for early signs of dementia.

Sometimes someone else might be accused of stealing which may occur more frequently over time. For example, your dad may insist that a friend keeps stealing his money, whereas its in its regular hiding place. Other examples that may indicate potential dementia symptoms could include teabags in the fridge or remote control in the cutlery drawer.

Misplacing or losing items is more common in Alzheimers Disease, rather than vascular dementia. Find out more about the different types of dementia.

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Monday 17 September 2018

Dementia is the term given to a group of diseases that affect a persons thinking, behaviour and ability to perform everyday tasks. While its commonly thought of as an older persons disease, dementia can affect people of all ages.

Early symptoms of dementia can be vague and vary between people. While some people pick up on changes in their own thinking or behaviour that might be caused by dementia, sometimes these signs are first noticed by those around them.

If youve noticed a change in someone close to you, the steps below can help you assist them in seeking diagnosis and treatment.

Struggling To Adapt To Change

Alzheimers and Senile Dementia Symptoms and Treatments You Might Over ...

For someone in the early stages of dementia, the experience can cause fear. Suddenly, they cant remember people they know or follow what others are saying. They cant remember why they went to the store, and they get lost on the way home.

Because of this, they might crave routine and be afraid to try new experiences. Difficulty adapting to change is also a typical symptom of early dementia.

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Can Dementia Be Cured

The concept that dementia is a disease rather than an inevitable side effect of ageing has been around for over 100 years.

But after over a century of research, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the condition and if dementia can be cured.

Dementia charities have argued, with some justification, that there is a lack of funding for research into dementia compared with research into treatments for other long-term conditions, such as cancer.

However, many areas of research may lead to more effective treatments and, possibly, a cure for dementia. Inevitably, such treatments are many years, probably decades, of hard work away.

Even without a cure, there is reason to believe that a continuous improvement in the standards of dementia care can be achieved.

Here are some of the current promising areas of dementia research.

The Onset Of Dementia

In dogs, dementia is usually characterized by a progressive loss of sensory functions. Sight and hearing are affected faster. Smell, which is the dogs main sense, tends to be more resistant.

In more advanced cases, the animal may also begin to lose its cognitive function. This is really a logical consequence of the decline of their senses. They become unable to recognize commands, and have problems with sense of time and place.

Although the most common and recognized cause of dementia is aging, there are other risk factors. Among the most relevant are: unbalanced diet, intoxication, stroke, brain damage and / or damage of various kinds.

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Dementia & Alzheimer’s Disease

Dementia typically comes in various forms one of them believed to be senile dementia. Generally, this is a term that was in the past used to describe all types of dementia.

This is no longer the case since senility is no longer in use as a diagnosis for dementia. Before going deeper into this illness, it is better to start by describing what senility is.

Can You Test Yourself For Dementia

Teepa Snow Discusses the Ten Early Signs of Dementia

A new study finds that a simple, self-administered test developed by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, College of Medicine and College of Public Health can identify the early, subtle signs of dementia sooner than the most commonly used office-based standard cognitive test.

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What Are The Risk Factors For Dementia

The risk factors for developing dementia include age and family history. Age and a family history of dementia are non-modifiable risk factors. Abnormal genes which are associated with Alzheimer’s disease have been identified, but are only rarely involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes increase the risks of developing either Alzheimer’s disease or multi-infarct dementia. Some medications can lead to memory problems which look like dementia.

Symptoms Specific To Frontotemporal Dementia

Although Alzheimer’s disease is still the most common type of dementia in people under 65, a higher percentage of people in this age group may develop frontotemporal dementia than older people. Most cases are diagnosed in people aged 45-65.

Early symptoms of frontotemporal dementia may include:

  • personality changes reduced sensitivity to others’ feelings, making people seem cold and unfeeling
  • lack of social awareness making inappropriate jokes or showing a lack of tact, though some people may become very withdrawn and apathetic
  • language problems difficulty finding the right words or understanding them
  • becoming obsessive such as developing fads for unusual foods, overeating and drinking

Read more about frontotemporal dementia.

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Difficulty Remembering Or Trouble Finding Words

Its normal for older adults to have lapses in thought here and there. But showing signs of forgetfulness every day is an early warning sign of dementia.

If your mom is consistently losing track of her thoughts mid-sentence, or if your dad has trouble finding words in casual conversations, these are dementia signs to note.

Discussing Dementia Symptoms With Dr Alex Bailey

Senile or Old Dementia

In a new episode of the Age Space Podcast, we talk to Dr Alex Bailey, an old age psychiatrist working in Westminster, sharing his thoughts and advice on dementia. This includes identifying the early signs of dementia, details of memory services, supporting those with dementia to live well, psychological therapies, supporting carers and much more. Listen to the dementia explained podcast.

What to read next…

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Withdrawal From Work Or Social Activities

At times everyone can become tired of housework, business activities, or social obligations. However a person with dementia may become very passive, sitting in front of the television for hours, sleeping more than usual, or appearing to lose interest in hobbies.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms or are concerned about a friend or relative, visit your doctor and discuss your concerns.

Know The Signs Of Dementia

Early diagnosis can help people with dementia plan for the future, and might mean they can access interventions that help slow down the disease. Being familiar with the signs of dementia can help people receive a diagnosis as early as possible.

Early signs that a person might have dementia can include:

  • being vague in everyday conversations
  • memory loss that affects day-to-day function
  • short term memory loss
  • difficulty performing everyday tasks and taking longer to do routine tasks
  • losing enthusiasm or interest in regular activities
  • difficulties in thinking or saying the right words
  • changes in personality or behaviour
  • finding it difficult to follow instructions
  • finding it difficult to follow stories
  • increased emotional unpredictability.

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What Is The Treatment For Symptoms And Complications Of Dementia

Some symptoms and complications of dementia can be relieved by medical treatment, even if no treatment exists for the underlying cause of the dementia.

  • Behavioral disorders may improve with individualized therapy aimed at identifying and changing specific problem behaviors.
  • Mood swings and emotional outbursts may be treated with mood-stabilizing drugs.
  • Agitation and psychosis may be treated with antipsychotic medication or, in some cases, anticonvulsants.
  • Seizures usually require anticonvulsant medication.
  • Sleeplessness can be treated by changing certain habits and, in some cases, by taking medication.
  • Bacterial infections require treatment with antibiotics.
  • Dehydration and malnutrition may be treated with rehydration and supplements or with behavioral therapies.
  • Aspiration, pressure sores, and injuries can be prevented with appropriate care.

Dementia Symptoms To Track In Elderly Parents

10 Early Signs of Dementia

No one knows your parents personalities, hobbies, or quirks like you do. So if you notice unusual behavioror experience a persistent feeling that something is offtheres a good chance it is. Aging is a well-known risk factor for Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. In fact, the risk of developing Alzheimers disease doubles every five years in people 65 and older.

Learning to spot key dementia symptoms in aging parents and documenting the early stages of dementia can make a big difference. Your observations could provide helpful insight to doctors, which can lead to a quicker and more accurate diagnosis. Discover eight dementia behaviors to track and how to get a diagnosis and treatment.

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Forgetting How To Do Everyday Tasks

This is different to: more typical age-related forgetfulness such as needing help to record a tv programme or how to use the settings on a microwave oven.

Your parent may start to find it hard to complete daily tasks these might include the setting of a table, driving to a familiar location or remembering the rules of their favourite game.

Forgetting how to do everyday tasks can be spotted just by observing someone or by completing a Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam an early signs of dementia test which can be taken online.

However, this shouldnt be used as an official diagnostic tool you should always seek the advice of a GP. Other examples of forgetting how to do simple everyday tasks can include:

  • Closing the fridge door
  • Making a cup of tea or coffee
  • Locking / closing the front door
  • Managing a budget

Your parent may start to find it difficult to complete tasks they used to be able to do with ease. For example, if they used to be a fantastic baker, they may now find it hard to bake the sponge cake theyve made over and over again.

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