Alzheimer's Disease Paper - Essay Example

Alzheimer’s disease imparts great effects on both the patient, as well as his family members. It is a depressing condition, with no hope for complete cure. As the disease advances, the patient needs to be looked after every moment. This has led to an increase in the trend for sending these patients to care centers developed for the needs of Alzheimer’s patients. This has psychological effects on the whole family as no one wants to stay away from one’s beloved family members. Unfortunately, no medicines are known to completely cure the situation; yet drugs are available to slow down the process temporarily.

Studies are still being carried out in an effort to find a cure for this disease. At this stage, we can just hope for a better future regarding Alzheimer’s treatment options as the knowledge for its causes and mechanisms still need to be fully understood. Alzheimer’s disease 3 Alzheimer’s disease is a disease of old age, mostly appearing after 65 years of age, with a risk increasing in a direct proportion to age. This disease was named after a German physician Alois Alzheimer, who was the first one to treat a case of Alzheimer disease in 1906.

According to the calculated data, there are about 5.3 million affected persons of Alzheimer’s disease currently reported in United States alone. . SOCIAL IMPACTS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: The patients affected with Alzheimer’s disease face a lot of trouble as their entire life style changes with the progression of disease. There must be someone available to take care of them all the time. Such patients do not know what to do in situations with which they have dealt with several times before the onset of disease; for example they may not even know what to do when a glass breaks, as the severity of their disease increases.

Such situations make these patients highly vulnerable to harm themselves if left alone. Providing in-home care to such patients or a long-term care in terms of shifting these patients to a care center gives a great financial impact. Alzheimer’s disease 4 Most often Alzheimer’s disease is misjudged as forgetfulness due to old age during the initial course of disease. But as the signs and symptoms proceed, the problems get worse. A woman reported that she initially misdiagnosed her husband’s disease to be a mere case of decreased memory, but she actually realized the problem when one day she received a call from her husband’s work place where he used to go about 30 years back.

She was told that he used to go there and became agitated and angry whenever he was told that he was retired and no longer worked there. Such experiences change the behavior of the affected individual as well as their loved ones. The patients of Alzheimer’s disease most often lack an insight about their deficits, and thus need a continuous care in order to prevent them from possible harms. Just as in case of little children, who need a full time monitoring, these old patients