Dementia
Eric Anthony
Definition
Dementia is a persistent or chronic disorder of the mental processes that are caused by injury or brain disease and are marked by impaired reasoning, memory disorders, and personality changes. It's damage to the brain cells.
Statistics
Dementia is more common in older people and is not considered a normal part of ageing. 47 million people worldwide have dementia, with almost 8 million new cases a year. The probability of getting dementia increases by a lot as you age. The disease affects about 1% of people ages 60-64, and after the age of 60 the risk doubles every five years. At age 85 it affects somewhere between 30-50% of people. Research has proven that dementia seems to be more common in woman than men, and it's more common among African Americans and Hispanic Americans than Caucasians. More than half of nursing home occupants are due to this illness.
Signs & Symptoms
Warning Signs:
- Confusion about time and place
- Significant problems with language
- Difficulty keeping track of things
- Changes in personality, mood, or behavior
- Difficulty when it comes to performing familiar tasks
Symptoms:
- Memory loss
- Decline in mental facilities
- Mental confusion
- The inability to speak or understand correctly
- Aggression, irritability, personality changes
- Wandering and getting lost
Treatment
There really is no treatment for the illness. They do have medication that can slow down the progression of the disease.some symptoms or causes may be reversible which would be ones caused by infections, immune disorders, brain tumors, anoxia, poisoning, subdural hematomas, and reaction to medications. Though there's no treatment there are things you can do to help reduce the risk of getting dementia, these would include, keeping your mind active, being physically and socially active, lowering your blood pressure, spending more time being educated, maintaining a healthy diet, quitting the act of smoking and reducing alcohol intake.
Prognosis
The prognosis for any reversible dementia related to any nutritional or thyroid problems usually are pretty good after the cause of it has been identified and treated. However, the prognosis for any dementia disorder that is related to an HIV infection or alcoholism depends more on the patients age and how severe the underlying disorder is, is not that great. Patients with irreversible dementia, slowly deteriorate in their mental and physical capacities and end in death. Help is normally not needed until walking, swallowing, or sitting becomes difficult.
Personal Statement
By doing this research project I hoped to gain general knowledge of this disease. It’s a pretty common one and affects a lot of people. What I learned from this project was just that, I gained some basic knowledge about dementia, and the different types of dementia, I also learned how to handle it if I were to get this in my old age.
citations
"Dementia." Mayo Clinic. N.p., 26 Nov. 2014. Web. 9 Dec. 2015. <http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dementia/basics/definition/con-20034399>.
"Dementia." Deanna M. Swartout-Corbeil, RN and Tish Davidson, AM. The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Ed. Jacqueline L. Longe. 5th ed. Detroit: Gale, 2015. 9 vols.
Fontaine, Karen Lee. “Cognitive Impairment. Disorders.” Mental Health Nursing. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2009. 519-525. Print.
"Dementia." Deanna M. Swartout-Corbeil, RN and Tish Davidson, AM. The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Ed. Jacqueline L. Longe. 5th ed. Detroit: Gale, 2015. 9 vols.