Dementia affects a person's cognitive abilities such as remembering, thinking and reasoning in a way that disrupts their daily life and functionality; It is a condition that manifests itself with decrease and deterioration. Some people with dementia are unable to regulate their emotions and act as if their personalities have changed. Dementia symptoms affect people differently at different stages of the disease. Initially, its symptoms are unnoticeable, then it looks like a behavioral disorder. Then it turns into a situation that seriously affects the daily life of the person.
Dementia is a condition that increases in frequency with increasing age. One third of 85-year-old people have symptoms of dementia at different levels. There are also some cognitive changes with aging, but dementia is a different situation.
Today, the increase in medical services such as early diagnosis and treatment has paved the way for long life. However, this also means that we encounter dementia more frequently.
Early diagnosis of dementia is of vital importance. Today, saying normal aging and bypassing it renders valuable time ineffective in terms of preventing dementia from a medical point of view. Therefore, it is important to recognize and be aware of the symptoms of dementia.
What is dementia (symptoms of dementia)?
Dementia symptoms occur as a result of a healthy brain cell (neuron) being disconnected from other cells, not working properly or dying. Everyone loses some neurons during aging, but this loss is serious in dementia patients.
Symptoms:
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Forgetfulness, inability to make decisions, inability to think clearly, logical errors, confused
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Difficulties in speaking, difficulty in expressing thoughts, inability to understand what you read, and difficulties in expressing their thoughts by writing.
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Do not get lost or get lost in familiar places
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Not being able to use money and having difficulty paying bills.,
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Constantly asking questions.
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Expression of familiar objects by different names
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More Difficulty in arguing and doing.
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Losing interest and being indifferent to daily activities.
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Hallucinating
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Experiencing delusions and paranoia
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Don't be angry and aggressive
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Being able to break other people's hearts
inability to understand -
Experiencing movement difficulties in the form of loss of balance and clumsiness.
Dementia develops over time in people with pervasive developmental disorders and intellectual disabilities. There are different clinical presentations in the tables according to
Types of dementia
The most common dementia disease in the elderly is Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid plaques accumulate in the brain here and also form complex structures in tau. As a result, brain functions deteriorate.
Vascular dementias
It is a type of dementia that develops as a result of damage to the blood vessels that feed the brain, when the brain's nutrition and oxygen intake are disrupted.
These two types of dementia constitute the vast majority of dementias.
Different mechanisms contribute to the formation of mixed type dementias, such as both vascular disorders and substance accumulation such as amyloid tau.
there may be symptoms similar to these; their distinction should be left to professionals.
How is dementia diagnosed?
It is diagnosed by performing a mini mental test. The test assess brain functions from different points. Mild moderate and severe dementia levels are determined.
MR vs.
Psychiatric examination : It is used to distinguish medical conditions confused with dementia.
The most important issue in dementia is early diagnosis. Because after the emergence of behavioral disorder and severe dementia symptoms, treatment can be both difficult and ineffective.
Dementia prevention is the subject of another article.
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