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| Dementia, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention, Complications |
Dementia is a disease that causes a decrease in memory and thinking. This condition has an impact on lifestyle, social skills, and daily activities of sufferers.
The most common types of dementia are Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Alzheimer's is a type of dementia associated with genetic changes and changes in proteins in the brain. Meanwhile, vascular dementia is a type of dementia due to disturbances in the blood vessels of the brain.
Keep in mind, dementia is different from senility. Senile is a change in the ability to think and remember that is usually experienced with age. These changes can affect memory, but they are not significant and do not make a person dependent on others.
Causes of Dementia
Dementia is caused by damage to nerve cells and connections between nerves in the brain. Based on the changes that occur, there are several types of dementia, namely:
Alzheimer's causes
Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. The cause of Alzheimer's disease is still unknown, but genetic changes inherited from parents are thought to increase the risk of developing this disease.
In addition to genetic factors, protein abnormalities in the brain are also thought to damage healthy nerve cells in the brain.
Vascular dementia
Vascular dementia is caused by disorders of the blood vessels in the brain. Recurrent stroke is the most common cause of this type of dementia.
Other conditions that cause symptoms of dementia
In addition to Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, there are other conditions that can cause dementia symptoms, but these are temporary. These conditions include:
- Metabolic or endocrine disorders
- Multiple sclerosis
- Subdural hematoma
- Brain tumor
- Medication side effects, such as sedatives and pain relievers
- Lack of certain vitamins and minerals, such as deficiency of vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin E, and iron in the body
- Poisoning due to exposure to heavy metals, pesticides, and consumption of alcoholic beverages
Dementia risk factors
There are a number of factors that can increase the risk of dementia, namely:
- Aging
- Family history of dementia
- Unhealthy diet
- Rarely exercise
- Smoking habit
- Alcohol addiction
In addition, there are several diseases that are also at risk of causing dementia, including:
- Down's syndrome
- Depression
- Sleep apnea
- Obesity
- High cholesterol
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
Dementia Symptoms
The main symptoms of dementia are memory loss and changes in thought patterns that can be seen in behavior and speech. These symptoms may worsen over time.
To be clearer, here are the stages of symptoms that appear in dementia:
Stage 1
At this stage, the ability of the sufferer's brain function is still in the normal stage, so there are no visible symptoms.
Stage 2
Disturbances that occur at this stage begin to affect daily activities. For example, sufferers find it difficult to do various activities at one time, have difficulty making decisions or solve problems, easily forget activities that have not been done for a long time, and have difficulty choosing the right words.
Stage 3
At this stage, organic mental disorders begin to occur. Sufferers can get lost when passing the usual path, find it difficult to learn new things, the mood seems flat and less enthusiastic, and experience personality changes and decreased ability to socialize.
Stage 4
When entering this stage, sufferers begin to need help from others in carrying out daily activities, such as dressing and bathing.
Sufferers also experience changes in sleep patterns, difficulty reading and writing, becoming apathetic, withdrawing from the social environment, hallucinations, irritability, and being rude.
Stage 5
When it enters this stage, a person can be said to have severe dementia. Dementia at this stage causes sufferers to be unable to live independently. Sufferers will lose basic abilities, such as walking or sitting, do not recognize family members, and do not understand language.
When to see a doctor
Consultation with a neurologist or psychiatrist should be done for someone who is experiencing one or several symptoms of dementia, so that further examination is carried out.
Dementia is often equated with senility in the elderly, because both are related to memory loss. However, if the memory loss continues to get worse to the point where it is difficult for the patient to carry out daily activities, an examination must be carried out immediately.
Examination by a doctor needs to be done immediately for someone who is experiencing several or many symptoms that are suspected as early symptoms of dementia, including:
- Easy to forget
- It's hard to learn new things
- Difficulty concentrating
- Difficulty remembering time and place
- Mood is erratic
- Often loses things due to forgetting where to put them
- It's hard to find the right words when speaking
- Apathy or not caring about the surrounding environment
- Often repeats the same activity without realizing it
- Difficulty doing normal daily activities
Several diseases, such as diabetes, cholesterol, and hypertension, can increase the risk of developing dementia. If you suffer from this disease, it is advisable to regularly consult a doctor to monitor the progress of the disease and get the right treatment.
Dementia Diagnosis
Diagnosis of dementia is difficult, because the symptoms are similar to those of other diseases. Therefore, the doctor needs to carry out a series of examinations to be sure.
As a first step, the doctor will ask about the patient's symptoms to find out how much these symptoms affect daily activities. The doctor will also ask about the medical history of the patient and his family, to find out if there is a history of dementia in the family.
After that, the doctor will carry out several additional examinations which include:
- Nerve examination
- Nerve examination aims to assess muscle strength and see body reflexes.
- Mental examination
- This examination is carried out using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) method, which is a series of questions that will be given a score by a doctor to measure how much cognitive impairment is experienced.
- Sublime function test
- This test aims to measure a person's thinking ability, for example by asking the patient to count backwards from 100 or draw a clock hand to indicate a certain time.
Other tests also need to be done if there are other diseases that cause symptoms of dementia, such as a stroke, brain tumor, or thyroid disorder. The examination includes:
- Brain scan with CT scan, MRI, or PET scan
- Electrical examination of the brain with EEG
- Blood test
Dementia Treatment
Dementia treatment aims to help sufferers adapt to their condition, inhibit symptoms that appear, and avoid complications. Following are the procedures that can be used:
Special therapy
Several therapies that can be used to treat the symptoms and behaviors that arise due to dementia are:
- Cognitive stimulation therapy
- This therapy aims to stimulate memory, problem-solving skills, and language skills, by doing group activities or sports.
- Occupational therapy
- This therapy aims to teach patients how to carry out daily activities safely according to their condition, and teach them how to control their emotions in dealing with the development of symptoms.
- Memory therapy
- This therapy is useful to help sufferers remember their life history, such as hometown, school, work, and hobbies.
- Cognitive rehabilitation
- This therapy aims to train the part of the patient's brain that is not functioning, using the part of the brain that is still healthy.
Family support
In addition to the above therapies, support from family or relatives is needed to maintain the patient's quality of life. These forms of support or assistance include:
- Communicate with sufferers using short and easy-to-understand sentences, accompanied by gestures, gestures and eye contact
- Do sports that can improve strength, balance, and heart health with sufferers
- Doing fun activities with sufferers, such as cooking, gardening, painting, or playing music
- Create bedtime habits for sufferers, such as not watching television and turning on the house lights
- Make an agenda as a tool to remember events, activities, and treatment schedules that must be done by sufferers
- Make further treatment plans with the patient, to determine what treatment he should undergo
Drugs
Doctors can also prescribe several types of drugs to patients. These drugs include
- Piracetam
- Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors
- Memantine
- Antianxiety
- Antipsychotics
- Antidepressants
Operation
Dementia caused by a brain tumor, brain injury, or hydrocephalus, can be treated with surgery. Surgery can help relieve symptoms if there has been no permanent damage to the brain.
Although there are a number of therapies that can be done to treat dementia, most people with this disease do not recover completely. However, treatment measures must still be taken to relieve the symptoms that appear and avoid complications.
Dementia complications
Impaired memory and way of thinking experienced by people with dementia can cause complications when carrying out daily activities. The example is:
- Injured while walking alone
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Choking can cause pneumonia
- Unable to live independently
Dementia Prevention
There is no sure way to prevent dementia. However, there are several ways you can do to reduce the risk of this disease, such as:
- Quit smoking
- Exercise regularly
- Adequate sleep and rest
- Maintain nutritional intake and adopt a healthy diet, for example by eating foods low in fat and high in fiber
- Limit consumption of alcoholic beverages
- Maintain ideal body weight
- Exercising the brain regularly, such as diligent reading or playing crossword puzzles
- Control blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and cholesterol regularly
- Consult a doctor if you experience stress, depression, or anxiety disorders
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