Alzheimer’s

Dementia

Alzheimer’s Dementia is one of the most common types of dementia. The key problem is memory loss. The disease originates due to malfunction and disruption in the working of brain proteins causing neuronal loss and brain atrophy.

The most prominent symptom is  the forgetting of recent events or conversations. Other cognitive functions such as orientation to time and place, visuo spatial functioning, thinking and reasoning, decision making and judgement also decline.

The individual starts struggling with basic day to day functions and starts engaging in activities such as misplacing possessions, getting disoriented at a market place, not able to multitask, forgetting what next has to be done, losing track of time, false remembrance of recent events, etc.

In later stages, speech also gets affected as semantic and pragmatic level of processing deteriorates. Personality change is also a marked change in the individual which affects relationships and their relationship with their caregivers and family members.

Depression, apathy, social withdrawal, mood swings, suspiciousness and paranoia, wandering, loss of inhibitions, reactions to irrational beliefs are few of the personality changes in the course of illness which is difficult for family members to accept and manage. 

Thus, it is imperitive that both the individual and the caregiver seek professional help in the form of therapy to be able to understand and process their reality.