symptoms of dementia in seniors

Symptoms of Dementia in Seniors

What is dementia? What are its symptoms in seniors? This article gives you the answers.

A decline in the brain's functioning that makes it difficult for a person to comprehend, remember, learn, and communicate is known as dementia. The diminishing abilities of the brain can leave a person helpless and unable to take care of himself. Dementia is referred to as an illness syndrome that affects those centers of a person's brain which deal with attention, memory, language processing, and problem-solving. It causes disorientation in space and time and affects a person's moods and behavior. The increase in the number of people suffering from dementia has made senior health a major concern. Dementia results from the destruction of brain cells. A severe brain injury, stroke, or brain tumor can cause dementia. It can also result from certain developmental disorders. Declining brain function due to advancing age is one of the most common causes of dementia due to which it is observed in seniors. Dementia Symptoms in Seniors Difficulty Remembering: Patients of dementia face difficulties in remembering things. They tend to ask the same question repeatedly. They become forgetful and fail to remember the simplest of things. Due to increasing loss of memory, they tend to misplace things. They face difficulties in performing routine activities because of memory loss. Difficulty Communicating: Those with dementia have problems with language and communication. As dementia affects the areas of the brain associated with language and communication, patients cannot find words to communicate their feelings. It is during these difficult times that they need attention and support from family and friends. It is important for their near ones to understand them and help them communicate what they feel. Inability to Reason: Due to loss of memory, those suffering from dementia show poor analytical thinking and reasoning. They cannot judge situations. Abstract thinking becomes nearly impossible. Disorientation: Due to disorientation in time and space, seniors with dementia fail to recognize even familiar names and places. They lose their sense of time and space. They fail to orient themselves with the concepts of space and time. This disorientation is indeed painful for the patients as well as their relatives. Vascular dementia and the Alzheimer's disease are two of the common types of dementia. Vascular dementia is characterized by sudden loss of memory, paralysis, loss of vision, difficulties with language processing, and loss of bowel and bladder control. Varying moods and sudden variations in temperament are observed in patients of vascular dementia. Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include gradual loss of memory, confusion and disorientation, a decline in social abilities, and increasing irritability and restlessness. Patients of the Alzheimer's disease experience depression and anxiety. A tendency to lose things, forget names, miss appointments, increased confusion, and irritability are some of the commonly observed symptoms of dementia in seniors. They commonly experience loss of interest in the world around them. It is important for their near ones to be positive around the patients and caring and supportive towards them. It is during these times that their family members need to cheer them up and try to help them take interest in living. It is the time to assure them that life can still be made beautiful.

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