Visible Symptoms and Treatment of Alzheimers Disease - Essay Example

Alzheimer’s disease Alzheimer’s disease is the most commonly spread type of dementia, yet it’s poorly studied on a of the origin, treatment and prevention. However, the disease symptoms are very well known. Altogether, Alzheimer’s disease’s symptoms may cause mental disorders among ill persons as well as among the members of their immediate circle. Psychotherapy, particularly CBT, may help all of them to go through a period of disease development. Introduction Since a German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer had firstly described the unknown disease in 1904, Alzheimer’s disease has been wildly studied. However, over a period of a hundred years not very much progress was succeeded in understanding of the most important issues of the disease: its causes, treatment and prevention. Only Alzheimer’s disease’s development has been successfully studied. Currently known as a terminal disease Alzheimer’s can only be identified (diagnosed) and decreased during a period of its development. What is Alzheimer’s disease? Alzheimer’s disease pertains to a dementia group of diseases which unify intellectual diseases. In fact, about 60-80% of dementia cases are Alzheimer’s ones (“What is Alzheimer’s”, 2015). It is characterized by difficulties with cognitive processes: memory loss and problems with thinking and language activities. As the result of Alzheimer disease, behavioral problems appear, and a person becomes enable to do even his/ her daily tasks. Because of the symptoms’ similarity with a normal aging process, Alzheimer’s is commonly considered as the elderly disease. Yet Alzheimer’s may be diagnosed among young people too, though rarely. The disease progress with a time: all four commonly defined stages of the disease usually take a period of about 7-8 years, but a time may vary depending on individual health conditions. Alzheimer’s is a terminal illness which necessary leads to death, because no special cure has been invented yet. Nowadays Alzheimer’s is “the sixth leading cause of death in the United States” (“What is Alzheimer’s”, 2015). Disease development: brain The disease firstly and mainly affects a brain, where nerve cells are dying all over the brain and brain tissues are lost. “The cortex shrivels up, damaging areas involved in thinking, planning and remembering” (“Inside the Brain”, 2015). Hippocampus, the area which is responsible for a new memories formation, is mostly affected. Plaques and tangles are formed there, and progress within the cortex during a period of illness. On the earliest Alzheimer’s stages a learning and memory and a thinking and planning areas are affected. On the middle states the disease affects areas which are responsible for speaking, understanding speech and sense of a body in a relation to the environment. The last affected are areas which are responsible for a communication and recognition. The brain itself becomes much smaller by size (“Inside the Brain”, 2015). Visible symptoms For a different stages of Alzheimer’s disease development, there is a different symptomatic. However, the key symptom for Alzheimer’s is the common one for other types of diseases dementia disease – a memory loss (especially due to new information). Thus, a person with Alzheimer’s may start asking for information which he/she has recently learned over and over again. A forgetting of dates and events follows: a person tends to use more reminder notes. As a planning brain area is the next being affected, a person with Alzheimer’s may experience difficulties when developing and following a plan, even if it refers to a very daily and familiar task. With a disease progressing, a person may experience troubles with sense of time and space, and only understand a present condition. While recognizing a place, in which he/ she has appeared, a way out planning may go with difficulties. Next come the problems with understanding distance when moving or transporting. On middle stages a person demonstrates problems with reading, speaking, writing and other kinds of linguistic activities as well. Keeping up the conversation becomes difficult, and a person often forgets names of things and subjects, and chooses wrong words when describing them. Despite misnaming, a person may misplace things, and then have troubles in finding misplaced things. Personal vocabulary generally becomes simpler and more senseless along with personally made judgments and a process of decision-making. On later stages, one suffering from Alzheimer’s disease may start to avoid common social activities and hobbies, and feel confused and frustrated even within his/ her own comfort zone. Person becomes depressed, stressed and frustrated. His/ her mood changes easily and changes of personality also follows (“10 Early Signs and Symptoms”, 2015). Treatment For a successful therapy, it should be based on diagnosis (like brain scans and other analysis and personal disease history). Yet in a case of Alzheimer’s, a person him/ herself is unable to provide doctors with a true information. Thus, family members and immediate circle is interviewed. As a terminally ill person is a challenge for a family who usually provides him/ her with care, family members may also suffer from some mental disorders and be in need of psychotherapy. It’s important to understand, that Alzheimer’s is a physical disease, and mental disorders are reasoned by a physical illness. Thus, treatment is mostly a pharmaceutical issue, while psychological treatment constitutes a part of a supporting therapy (“Talking therapies”, 2015). It’s another matter, that scientist have poorly succeeded in treating Alzheimer’s. The current way of treatment is mostly focusing on decreasing symptoms of the disease and stemming their development. In these circumstances a care and a psychological treatment play a very important role, and serve primary to help people with Alzheimer’s to feel more comfortable and confident during a period of illness. Talking therapies are primary used for Alzheimer’s cases. It may be a psychodynamic therapy, or psychoanalysis which discovers behavioral unconscious motives. A family therapy is also widely applied, and is mostly need on later stages when social connections between ill person and others are breaking. In its turn, a humanistic therapy may be helpful on early stages through encouraging ill person and his/ her family members to discover own feelings and values within a process of a personal development (“Talking therapies”, 2015). The most specific is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). As a person with Alzheimer’s mental disorders are mostly reasoned by unwilling changes of personal identity, CBT is helpful by changing ways of thinking and acting. The strong side of CBT, compering to other therapies for Alzheimer’s cases, is that the therapy is focused on a current state of affairs and teaches person to deal with present problems. A person with Alzheimer’s is very likely to feel frustrated and confused due to his/ her personality changes, and CBT generally helps him/ her to make a sense of what’s happening (“Talking therapies”, 2015). Conclusion Every terminally disease diagnosis is a challenge for ill people as well as for the members of their families. Due to a specificity of symptoms (memory loss, decreasing recognition and etc.), Alzheimer disease causes great developing changes in a mentality of the ill person, affects his/ her mental health (depression, frustration and etc.), and also affects mental health of his/ her family members. Thus, being primary a physical disease, Alzheimer’s however, implies a psychological treatment which primary goal is to help people live with this diagnosis. Along with other talking therapies, CBT therapy is most helpful on all stages of Alzheimer’s disease development. References 10 Early Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer’s. (2015). Alzheimer’s Association. Retrieved from http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_10_signs_of_alzheimers.asp Inside the Brain: Alzheimer’s Brain Tour. (2015). Alzheimer’s Association Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.alz.org/research/science/alzheimers_brain_tour.asp Talking therapies (including counseling, psychotherapy and CBT). (2015). Alzheimer’s Society. Retrieved from http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=92 What is Alzheimer’s? (2015). Alzheimer’s Association. Retrieved from http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp Read More