Dementia Action Week

What is Dementia?

Dementia is an umbrella term for a set of symptoms that over time can affect someone’s memory, ability to make decisions, cause mood swings, anxiety and/or depression, forgetting time and place, becoming quiet and withdrawn and many other memory, cognitive and communicative symptoms. Unfortunately, there is no cure for dementia yet.

What are the causes of dementia?

Dementia is caused by neurones in the brain not working properly, the disease damages the nerve cells, particularly in the area that affects memory, thinking and speaking. It is a progressive condition that is not a natural part of aging, being progressive means that it will get worse over time and as it progresses new symptoms can be experienced. However, it is not clear who will and won’t get dementia but factors such as age, genes, lifestyle and health conditions can play a role.

Chances of getting dementia can be increased by poor diet, smoking, drinking alcohol, hearing loss, a reduced physical activity and high blood pressure. There is evidence to suggest that during the ages of 40 – 65, there are things an individual can do to reduce the risk of dementia.

1. Alzheimer’s disease – this is the most common type of dementia. The first sign of Alzheimer’s being memory loss. A build up of protein in the brain damages the cell s ability to transmit messages. Symptoms get worse over time, these include difficulty remembering recent events, poor concentration, confusion, disorientation, slow or muddled speech, difficulty with everyday tasks and more. Medication can slow its progression but there is no cure for Alzheimer’s Disease.

2. Vascular Dementia- the second most common type of dementia. It is caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain, often caused by strokes or mini strokes- TIAs. The first signs of vascular dementia being problems planning and organising, making decisions and problem solving. Although similar to Alzheimer’s Disease symptoms, Vascular Dementia can also have specific problems such as sudden changes in mood, difficulty with walking and difficulty controlling the bladder.

3. Dementia with Lewy Bodies- DLB for short, it is closely related to Parkinson's. It is a progressive condition that affects movement and motor control. Memory is less affected compared to other types of Dementia, symptoms of DLB include prone to falls, tremors, delusions, difficulty staying focused, disrupted sleep and trouble swallowing.

4. Frontotemporal Dementia- as we previously wrote about FTD in an article  following on from Bruce Willis' diagnosis, we discussed this less common type of dementia that affects the frontal lobes of the brain. Symptoms include changes to personality and behaviour and/or difficulty with language. Frontotemporal Dementia is also called Picks Disease.

Frontal lobes:

• emotional expression
• personality
• problem-solving
• judgement
• motor function
• language- some individuals may struggle to find the right words when talking to you
• motivation- apathy can cause individuals to lose motivation to do things they would normally enjoy and find meaningful
• social behaviour

Parietal lobes control:

• learnt skills such as reading, writing, calculations and driving
• object recognition
• spatial awareness

Temporal lobes:

• memory- some individuals may begin to find it difficult to recall events that have happened recently
• speech
• language comprehension- some individuals may struggle to follow a conversation
• auditory (hearing) and visual perception
• emotional responses
• face recognition

Occipital lobes control:

• spatial awareness- dementia can cause difficulties processing 3D objects, this can make it difficult to use stairs, park a car or recognise objects
• colour recognition
• object recognition- an individual may misidentify objects such as looking at a remote control and think it is a mobile phone
• hand-eye coordination- such as picking up items