“The disease might hide the person underneath, but there’s still a person who needs your love and attention.”
– Jamie Calandriello
Dementia takes one who was once the family rock, and turns them into a shell of a person. It takes your doting grandmother, and makes her forget your name, your outgoing father becomes shy, your once joyous brother becomes aggressive. It becomes progressively worse, until your loved one forgets every last detail of their life, and reverts back to infancy.
Dementia is commonly thought of as an illness, but it is actually an umbrella term for a group of several individual diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease or Parkinson’s. Dementia not only affects memory, but affects us cognitively and psychologically as well; It can affect communication, reasoning, and even one’s personality. Certain types of dementia can cause depression, paranoia, and hallucinations as well. Memory loss can be a prime symptom of dementia; However, it does not always mean someday has a type of dementia. There are many other causes for memory loss, which can make certain types of dementia difficult to diagnose. Dementia can have multiple causes, ranging from lack of oxygen in the brain, a head injury, certain infections, and alcoholism.
Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia, and is the most diagnosed form. Although it is widely known, the cause for Alzheimer’s is still unknown; However, it is known that it is hereditary, and it is a mutation of three genes. This form of dementia is characterized by “plaques and tangles” in the brain; Plaques are clumps of beta-amyloid, and tangles are fibrous tangles of tau protein. These two proteins damage not only healthy neurons in the brain, but the fibers connecting them.
Alzheimer’s Disease causes memory loss, as well as difficulty concentrating, language problems, and mood and personality changes. Those with Alzheimer’s become somewhat of a shell of who they once were; Their normally spunky behavior is turns into them being withdrawn and shy, they can forget the things in life they loved the most, and they may lose their ability to speak.
Alzheimer’s can be diagnosed by your primary care provider, a neurologist, or a geriatrician. In order to diagnose it, many other things need to be ruled out; This is done by lab work, brain scans, and memory tests. There is no treatment to reverse Alzheimer’s disease, only treatment to slow the progression of a decrease in mental function and behavior management.
Vascular Dementia
This form of dementia is caused by damage to blood vessels in the brain, causing a lack of oxygen. It is oftentimes seen in those who have suffered a stroke, a traumatic brain injury, those with aneurysms, or people with high blood pressure or a smoking addiction. It is characterized by problem solving difficulties, slowed thinking, and poor organization; These symptoms are more noticeable than memory loss with this form of dementia. There is no surefire way to diagnose this type of dementia; It is diagnosed by symptoms and causes. Just like Alzheimer’s, there is no cure for this type of dementia, treatment focuses on preventing further mental deterioration.
Lewy Body Dementia
Lewy Body dementia is caused by deposits of lewy body protein in the brain. This type of dementia is oftentimes more prevalent in older men, those with a family history, or those with Parkinson’s disease. It is characterized by hallucinations, muscle rigidity, the slowing of movement, or bradykinesia, tremors, confusion, decreased concentration, memory loss, and sleep disturbances. Considering it’s complex nature, diagnosis is done by a neurologist; There is no cure for Lewy Body dementia, only treatment to help slow progression and manage the symptoms.
Frontotemporal Dementia (Pick’s Disease)
Frontotemporal dementia, otherwise known as Pick’s Disease, is the degeneration of nerve cells and connectors to the frontal and temporal lobes in the brain. The frontal lobe controls our emotions, problem solving, memory, language, and judgement, while the temporal lobe controls facial recognition, language comprehension, and speech. There are three main groups of symptoms associated with frontotemporal dementia:
Behavior Difficulties
This group of symptoms affects behavior. Oftentimes, there will be a noticeable decrease in spontaneity, social withdrawal, and an increase in inappropriate sexual behaviors. The sufferer will oftentimes be more lethargic, and have little to no interest in things they once enjoyed.
Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia (PNFA)
Aphasia is defined as a language disorder that affects one’s ability to communicate. Those with these symptoms gradually decline in verbal fluency, and find it harder to speak. They have increased errors in speech, and oftentimes make phonological or syntactic errors.
Semantic Dementia
This group of symptoms is the opposite of PNFA, in the sense that those with this group of symptoms lose word comprehension. They often preserve syntactic fluency.
Just like the previously discussed, there is no cure for frontotemporal dementia, treatment includes behavior management. This form of dementia is caused by genetics, and those with it have a seven year life span after diagnosis.
Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is similar to Lewy Body dementia, although it is diagnosed one year prior to developing dementia. It’s symptoms include impaired memory, difficulty sleeping, temors, and hallucinations. There are no specific tests to diagnose Parkinson’s disease, and it is diagnosed on your medical history. There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, although medications are available to help manage symptoms. In some severe cases, surgery may be used to help.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
This is the rarest form of dementia, and is fatal 90% of the time in the first year of diagnosis. This form of dementia often mimics other dementias, making it difficult to diagnose.However, this disease progresses rapidly, while dementias like Alzheimer’s progresses gradually. The protein in the brain of somebody with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease changes shape spontaneously; Doctors have yet to find the answer as to why.
Mixed Dementia
This form of dementia covers the whole spectrum of dementia, and is tricky to diagnose, considering it contains multiple symptoms of different dementias. Symptoms of this dementia vary, although the most common form is Alzheimer’s mixed with vascular dementia, or Alzheimer’s mixed with Lewy Body dementia. There is no cure, only treatment to manage symptoms.
Prevention
There are many risk factors to dementia, ranging from poor education to genetics. High blood pressure, obesity, hearing loss, diabetes, and isolation are also contributing factors. Studies show that those suffering with alcoholism are three times more likely to develop dementia than those without.
Dementia is an umbrella term for several different diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Lewy Body dementia. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, and has the most research found. Many people with dementia forget loved ones, how to do simple tasks, and are unable to comprehend spoken word. Although there is no cure for dementias, there is treatment to slow the progression, and symptom management. Those with dementia don’t mean to forget you, they have no choice.
References:
https://www.healthline.com/health/dementia
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/parkinsons-disease/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20376062