DEMENTIA
Disease information
DEMENTIA
Dementia
.
In the understanding of
dementia
include
multiple
diseases
of various causes.
They are all characterized by
a
deterioration acquired over time, progressive and irreversible manner, of all intellectual
functions
and personality, which affects memory,
language
,
attention
, the trial, the reasoning ability and So produces disturbance of
social
behavior.
We can say that it is
a
set of
chronic
diseases
that evolve over
a
period
of months at least, discovered this deterioration often haphazard manner and that the patient is not aware of it.
Forecast.
It is not good.
There are no therapies that help cure these
disorders
(except in certain dementias secondary to other processes that do have effective treatments and, therefore, cure or arrest the deterioration) so the degree of deterioration of the patient is growing.
Causes.
Dementias can differentiate between
primary
and secondary depending on the product of another illness or not.
Among the
primary
stresses, their frequency, Alzheimer's
disease
whose cause is being investigated intensively at present.
Signs and symptoms.
The most
common
of all
dementia
is Alzheimer's
disease
, which
was
formerly known as presenile
dementia
(reserving the term of senile
dementia
for those who appeared after 65 years)
The
disease
occurs in older people with
a
slow, progressive course.
Usually, it starts with disturbances of recent memory, is often the subject can not repeat any word that you have read or heard just minutes before,
but
it
has
perfectly preserved the memory of old facts. This shortfall makes it lose the objects or forgetting where you saved.
Over time this impairment of memory becomes more pronounced, affecting longer periods, always from the present into the past.
Subsequently occurs disorientation in time and space, with disregard for the date or the inability to orient themselves in uncommon places and later in places familiar, even to ignore his own room.
They present alterations of
language
, being typically do not end sentences or are intersected with silences, often giving answers that do not correspond with the question. So over time present difficulties in developing
business
as usual, arriving after many years totally
dependent
on another person.
The second most frequent
dementia
is due to cerebro -
vascular
diseases
(see
stroke
)
Risk Factors / Prevention.
Al ignored the
source
of most of the dementias, it is difficult to identify the risk factors and how to prevent them,
but
in secondary dementias, such as
stroke
(see
stroke
) that it is possible to act on the causes underlying the Most of the cases.
Diagnosis and Treatment.
DIAGNOSIS:
The diagnosis is based on symptoms, which is usually progressive: that is, the patient enters the insanity at the time, not immediately.
Anyway we should do blood tests, electroencephalograms, CT and other evidence in certain cases to rule out any of the secondary dementias.
TREATMENT:
The treatment, rehabilitation, seeks to compel the patient to work towards her brain, especially in periods of motors and memory, enabling it to delay the onset of symptoms.
When there many types of
dementia
and pseudodemencias, these patients should be evaluated by
a
specialist because there are effective treatments for some of them.
These treatments should be instituted as soon as possible in the evolution of the
disease
.
Thus, we can say that some
dementia
can be treated specifically, such as those due to:
chronic
infections
such as
syphilis
.
Vitamin
deficiency
.
hormonal
problems
,
disorders
of the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid that bathes the
central
nervous
system
composed of the brain, the brain stem and
spinal
cord)
In the case of
dementia
for which there is no
specific
treatment, there are palliative treatments (which reduce or eliminate the most troublesome symptoms or disabling) it is worth implementing.
It is
essential
support for the patient and his
family
as it is
a
problem
that is beyond the scope strict sanitary becoming
a
social
problem
.
Complications.
Those derived from
a
person who can not fend for
itself
, or go out on the
street
, or dressing, or remember anything.
The
natural
evolution of Alzheimer's
disease
leads patients to be bed, with the possibility of suffering from wounds that become infected secondarily.
Might suffer from swallowing
disorders
(difficulty swallowing) which leads them to states of extreme malnutrition and possibilities of
pneumonia
(lung inflammation) aspiration of gastric contents, often very serious.
Related Products