* “My father is 69 years old, a retired civil servant. He is a complete intellectual, participates in many social activities, does sports daily, is open to communication and has many friends. He has been exhibiting strange behavior for the last 2-3 years. He collects construction materials and old items left on the roadside and in the garbage and brings them home, saying "it's a shame so they don't go to waste." The house turned into a junk market and almost became a garbage house. My mother cannot tolerate this behavior, we, as her children, cannot understand it.”
* “My father is a retired tradesman and usually spent his time at home. He had been making inappropriate sexual conversations and jokes for the last year. Recently, while my 20-year-old sister was with her, she turned on an erotic movie on the TV and masturbated. She acted as if her daughter wasn't with her and what she did was normal. We were shocked and disgusted as a family by what she did."
* "My mother was a meticulous woman for years, she hated people who lied. She doesn't pay any attention to her cleanliness now, she lies right in front of us. She has officially become a brand new, different woman, her personality has changed.”
* “I am always on guard when my father comes to our store. It is not clear when he would get angry, he approached the passing customer from behind and punched him, and he did this behavior even though there was no problem. What happened to my father when he was a mild-mannered person? We were surprised.”
When you listen to similar stories, what should come to your mind is: “patient relatives inform me about dementia, how beautifully they describe dementia.”
Symptoms and symptoms of dementia Findings:
* The patient does not care about his general appearance and may be indifferent and extravagant. You may observe symptoms such as wearing inappropriate clothes (wearing a sweater on a summer day, etc.), smelling bad due to lack of hygiene (not taking a bath, etc.), and buttons not being buttoned properly. it could be. It may be accompanied by anxiety and depression.
* He/she may speak haltingly and speech may be impaired. May repeat the same topics or words. Sometimes no communication can be established The lir may look at you with blank eyes.
* Resentment and skepticism may accompany fears of being alone, abandonment, falling, or dying. He may become restless and aggressive, saying "his belongings were stolen, strangers entered the house, the assistant woman beat him, he was poisoned, he will be killed."
* Generally, consciousness is clear. In patients with advanced stages, confusion or confusion of consciousness (delirium) may occur.
* May not be able to recognize people, places and time. Since new information cannot be learned, location changes negatively affect the patient. In our culture, patients are cared for alternately among their children. This harms the patient. Every time the home and caregivers are changed, the patient becomes like a newborn and cannot adapt. The acceptable approach is; It is the provision of care in his own home, where he has lived for years and whose information is preserved in his brain. This approach can reduce the patient's uneasiness.
* Attention is distracted, misunderstandings and perceptions may occur. In advanced stage patients, dreams and reality may be confused (psychotic symptoms: delusions and hallucinations may occur).
* Severe memory loss occurs (forgetting). Recording, storage and retrieval functions are impaired. New information cannot be learned, very simple calculations cannot be made. While the most recently learned information is forgotten first, past information is forgotten later. Erroneous assessments such as "He doesn't remember what we talked about yesterday, but he remembers the event that happened 50 years ago, he actually has no forgetfulness" may be made by the patient's relatives. Since there are no new recordings, he always tells past stories in his speech and fills the gaps in his speech with these stories (confabulation-making up stories). Since he does not remember, he may repeat the same questions, "When will we eat?" even though he has just eaten his meal. he may ask.
* Abstract thinking weakens and concrete evaluations are made. He cannot interpret proverbs, jokes, jokes and anecdotes.
* He cannot account for or control his thoughts, behaviors and impulses. He may exhibit inappropriate speech and behavior.
* Thought content becomes poorer. Depending on your pre-disease life and personality traits, jealousy, stinginess, anxiety and obsessions may be obvious and intense.
* Sleeping too much or too little, decreased or increased appetite. �, constipation may be observed.
* Personality change (becoming sloppy while being meticulous) or exaggeration of personality traits (becoming more stingy when being stingy, becoming more intolerant when being grumpy) may be observed.
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