Dementia

Dementia is a term used to describe a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities severely enough to interfere with daily life. It is more common in elderly age group. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of progressive dementia in older adults but there are other causes of dementia The most common types are

Alzheimer’s disease Lewy Body Disease Frontotemporal dementia Vascular dementia Mixed dementia

Symptoms

• Symptoms include cognitive changes such as memory loss, difficulty in communication, difficulty in visual and spatial orientation such as losing way back home, difficulty in reasoning or problem solving, difficulty in co-ordination and motor function, difficulty in planning and organization, confusion, and disorientation.
• It may also present with psychological symptoms like personality change, depression, anxiety, agitation, and hallucination.

Diagnosis

• Diagnosis can be done by cognitive and neuropsychological tests, neurological evaluation, brain scan and psychiatric evaluation.
• Biomarker can be used in detecting Alzheimer’s disease.

Treatment

• Treatments depends on cause. Cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine may be useful in Alzheimer’s disease.