What is Dementia?

 Dementia comes from Latin origins.  It is also known as morosis in Greek;  dotage in Middle English and demence in French.  It literally means “away from mind” and is used to describe a group of symptoms and behaviors.  Dementia includes the loss of intellectual abilities, thinking, remembering and reasoning skills that are so severe that they interfere with daily functioning.

•        Short Term Memory Loss

•        Poor Judgment

•       Word Salad

•       Loss of Abstract Thinking

•       Losing/Misplacing Things

•       Wandering

•        Changes in Personality & Moods

•       Depression/ Anxiety/ Anger

•        Confusion of Time and /or Place

•        Afraid / Suspicious / Confused

•       Cannot initiate activity (bathroom, TV, reading, eating)

•        Allows strangers and/ or family members to take                   personal/financial advantage of them.

•       Violent / Catastrophic behaviors

•        A lot of patients say: “I want to go home.”

This usually means where I used to be in my mind, not a physical place.

 Dementia’s

•            Alzheimer’s (AD): most common form of dementia,    problems with memory, reasoning, judgment, personality, language, loss of initiative.

•     Parkinson’s (PD):  chronic, disabling disorder of nervous system, unable to move quickly, walking difficulties, uncontrollable tremors, and later onset dementia.

•     Vascular: Heart Disease, Stroke TIA’S temporal ischemic (mini strokes)

• ·     Huntington’s (HD):  always inherited has sporadic muscle activity, facial movements, loss of social skills, psychiatric symptoms, intoxicated appearance, emotional changes, depression, amnesia, hallucinations & lack of motivation.  Patient called “phd” (person with Huntington’s Disease).  Juvenile & adult onset ages 2-70)

• ·     Lewy Body:  loss of memory & reasoning, slowness, stiffness, tremors, hallucinations & falls

• ·     Down Syndrome:  over age 50 will invariably get Alzheimer’s; also possible: Familial Idiopathic Basal Ganglia Calcification; memory changes psychosis, personality and behavior challenges.

• ·     Binswanger’s Disease:  rare form of vascular dementia.  Affects memory, thinking & learning abilities;  mood swings, tremors, walking problems & seizures.  (untreated sustained High BP)

• ·     Tourette Syndrome: neurological disorder characterized by involuntary, sudden rapid movements or vocalizations that occur repeatedly in the same way, onset before age 21.

• ·     Korsakoff’s Syndrome:  may result from continual heavy drinking which causes a lack of thiamine (Vitamin B1) caused by poor nutrition and/or poor absorption from effects on stomach lining;  main symptom is loss of short term memory.

• ·     Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH): History of meningitis, encephalitis or old head injury, difficulty with walking, urinary incontinence and dementia.

• ·     Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) Prion diseases causes rapid progressive dementia paralysis, and usually death within one year.  (human form of mad cow disease.

• ·     Progressive Supranuclear Palsy has a striking feature of paralysis effecting eye movements and vision problems.  Person remains very aware of what is going on around the, more cognitive difficulties than dementia.

• ·     Vitamin Deficiency:  notably B1, B2, B3, B6, folic acid and B12 cause dementia like symptoms.  B12 deficiency can cause temporary insanity and hallucinations.

• ·     Thyroid:  Fatique, depression, irritability, forgetfulness, hair loss, cold sensitivity, difficulty swallowing and/or breathing, loss of interest, apathy, slowing down of mental abilities & poor short term memory.

• ·      HIV/AIDS: forgetfulness, lack of concentration, apathy, mood swings & hallucinations.

• ·     Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS/FAE) Causes disorders of the brain including retardations, growth, and facial malformations. Lifelong mental issues.  (most likely organic brain damage from mother drinking alcohol during pregnancy.) 95%A have mental problems, 82+% unable to live independently, 60+% have disrupted school experiences, 60+% have legal and law problems, 55+% of 12-51 year olds are confined to prison, drug/alcohol rehab. Facility or mental institution, 52% exhibit inappropriate sexual behaviors.

• ·      Pick’s Fronto-temporal dementia is used for a range of conditions usually affects ages 40-60 frontal lobe degeneration and motor neurons, personality changes, judgment, social skills, memory, planning and loss of language skills.