Relationship between Dementia And Alzheimers Disease - Coursework Example

Dementia Dementia Definition Of Dementia The term dementia is not used to refer to a particular cognitive disorder experienced by anindividual. The term is used to refer to various symptoms that impact an individual’s memory, thought process as well as social competences in a negative manner and does not allow an individual to perform their daily activities in a proper manner. When an individual is said to be diagnosed with the issue of dementias he is said to have been experiencing issues with two or more than two roles of the brain which includes the function of memorization as well as developing judgments. Due to these impairments of the brain an individual faces difficulty in performing various day to day tasks. Memory loss experienced by an individual is not only the sole indicator of an individual who is suffering from this disorder. This is because memory loss is a normal issue experienced by an individual as he/she ages. There are various symptoms as well as causes of dementia, but the disorder is diagnosable and treatable to a certain extent. Discovery Of Dementia The discovery of dementia can be dated back to the period of 1906 when an individual recognized as Alois Alzheimer was describing the mental state of a patient and stated that that the patient was suffering from dementia even before she was 50 years old (alzforum.org, 2015). Alzheimer came to this conclusion after conducting a post-mortem of the patient after she died. During the autopsy, Alzheimer figured out that her brain contained plaques as well as tangles and this is the time when German medical professionals started believing that this disease was genetic in nature. Relationship Between Dementia And Alzheimer’s Disease The mental disorder which is recognized as Alzheimer’s disease is most commonly confused with dementia and both the terms are used an interchangeable manner to refer to each other. There is lack of research on the difference and link between the two conditions and due to this both are confused with each other. The relationship between these two conditions is that one is the symptom and the other one is the cause of the symptom. The symptom is dementia and one of the causes of this symptom is Alzheimer’s disease (Burns, 2001). Dementia is itself not a disorder; it is a symptom that may be caused by the disorder called Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the various forms of dementias in which an individual experiences symptoms including failure to control thinking, loss of memory as well as language related disabilities. Progression Of Dementia Dementia is a progressive symptom that happens to worsen with the passage of time. The progression of this condition is divided into five different stages and these stages are used in order to identify how worse the dementia experienced by an individual has become. The various roles of the brain that becomes impaired as a result of dementia include an individual’s ability to identify as well as differentiate between individuals and various other elements. Patient suffering from dementia even fails to store and retrieve information, failure to make decisions and various other functions. Stages An individual who is suffering from stage one dementia is said to have not yet developed failure of carrying out any of the necessary abilities (Gallo, 2000). This individual is neither suffering the issue of failure to make analyze and interpret as well as derive meaning from information, they operate in an appropriate manner in their practical lives, they experience a healthy personal life and even have the ability to fulfill their personal duties towards themselves. An individual who is experiencing stage two of dementia tends to experience minor impairments of their brain functions (Gallo, 2000). The may fail to memorize as well as retrieve small portions of information while facing issues is solving problems and managing time. These individuals may experience tripping incidences while engaging in social as well as professional tasks. While they may easily carry out their personal tasks such as maintaining personal care without attaining help from others. A person who is experiencing stage three of dementia tends to experience mild level of cognitive impairments (Gallo, 2000). The may experience immense issues with their short-term memory that may impact their daily functioning and they even experience issues with transferring from one geographical location to another. These individuals even experience issues in operating in an independent manner at settings that are located outside their home environment. While at home based settings they may not indulge in household chores and may be reminded of when they need to indulge in personal hygiene activities. A person is said to be in the fourth stage of dementia when their brain functions are quite temperately impaired and they need immense help in performing personal hygiene related activities while they can indulge in social and professional practices but they do need external assistance (Gallo, 2000). These individuals fail to understand and interpret time as well as geographical locations and may even experience being lost. Their ability to learn new things is majorly impaired and they tend to forget the faces of people they have recently met. In the fifth stage the patient’s brain functions impairment reach to a severe level and they need the help of others top perform any social as well as personal hygiene related activities (Gallo, 2000). At this stage, the patient suffers immense inability to recall as well as memorize old and new information and performing daily life activities become almost impossible for them to carry out and they need an individual always at their side for assistance. Causes And Risk Factors There are various risk factors as well as causes associated with dementia and some of these causes and risk factors are controllable, while others are not controllable. These causes and risk factors include age, gender, and trauma to the head as well as familial history. Other than these causes and risk factors there are even other causes and risk factors. Age As an individual ages and as they grow older, the risk of developing different forms of dementia including Alzheimer’s as well as vascular dementia elevates. Age is not always the risk factor and cause of dementia as people who are quite young may even end up experience this psychological condition. According to American Psychological Association, age is one of the causes of dementia but it is evitable and the association states that the incidences of dementia recorded amongst people aging between 60 to 64 is quite low as compared to 40% to 50% of dementia incidences that have been recoded within the population who has aged 85 and above (apa.org, 2015). Gender Gender is a major risk factor for dementia and people belonging to a certain gender have a higher probability of developing dementia as compared to the others. A study was conducted by Azad et al. in order to identify what risk factors associated with dementia are more prevalent between male and female patients of dementia. In this research the researchers identified that the female gender experiences a higher risk of experiencing this cognitive issues as compared to the male gender (Azad et al., 2007). Head Trauma Head Trauma is another risk factor that can increases the probability of an individual of experiencing dementia. When an individual experiences a brain injury that is traumatic in nature, he/she experiences changes in cognition that may increase that individual’s risk of experiencing this psychological issue. A study was conducted by Wang et al. in which the researchers recruited more than 1190 individuals who had suffered brain injury and were experiencing dementia along with more than 224,000 individuals who had not suffered a brain injury (Wang et al., 2012). The research helped in identifying that individuals who had experienced a traumatic brain injury were 1.68 times at a higher risk of developing dementia (Wang et al., 2012). Family History Individuals suffering from dementia are quite concerned whether they have inherited the psychological issue through their parents and whether their own children may end up experience dementia. Individuals who have family members suffering the disorder of dementia are at a high risk of developing this psychological condition. According to Alzheimer’s Society around 400 families that are located throughout the globe “carry a mutation in the PSEN-1 gene on chromosome 14” (alzheimers.org.uk, 2014). Due to this around 50% of all early cases of Alzheimer’s disease which is a form of dementia are taking place (alzheimers.org.uk, 2014). Other Causes Various other causes and risk factors of dementia have been identified including substance abuse such as alcohol and cigarette smoking as well as various health conditions have been claimed to cause dementia. Tan et al. conducted a study in order to identify the perception of neuropsychologists regarding alcohol related dementia (ARD) (Tan et al., 2012). The researchers recruited 140 neuropsychologists and the researchers were able to identify that 93% of neuropsychologists perceive that excessive consumption of alcohol is a major risk factor associated with dementia (Tan et al., 2012). Diagnosis Of Dementia Neurological Examination One of the simplest and the most commonly method of diagnosing dementia are neurological examinations. These examinations are quite short in nature and are used as instruments to screen the mental state of an individual. One such tool that has been quite commonly used and even studied is the Mini-Mental State Examination which is even recognized as MMSE. This neurological examination tool is useful in not only diagnosing dementia, it is even helpful in identifying the stage of dementia that an individual is experiencing. This neurological examination tool comprises of several tests as well as a lengthy questionnaire and these tests as well as questions are scored. The tests within the examination tool are utilized for testing various mental functions that an individual should be able to carry out appropriately. These tests are used for testing an individual’s ability to recall and store information, his/her ability to focus as well as change attention and his/her language related abilities. The highest score that an individual being screened can achieve on the examination tool is 30 (OBryant et al., 2008). If an individual scores near to 30, he/she is considered as normal. If an individual scores less than 27, he/she may be suffering from dementia but that is not necessarily true in all cases as individuals may even be suffering from other psychological disorders due to which they may be experiencing impairment of cognitive abilities. This test is even used for analyzing the progression of dementia in a patient who has already been diagnosed with dementia. A demented person who might have been experiencing stage 2 of dementia may score less on the examination as compared to the score that he/she might have attained if they had been experiencing stage 1 of dementia. According to OBryant et al., the MMSE neurological examination tool is 90% accurate in diagnosing a patient who is suffering from dementia (OBryant et al., 2008). Post-Mortem Examination It is quite difficult to clinically diagnose the main cause or causes of dementia experienced by an individual. While this psychological issue can even result in the death of an individual and a post-mortem analysis may be conducted in order to identify the cause of dementia. Post-mortem examination of the brain of a demented person can provide an accurate idea of the cause of the psychological issue (Lowe, 2014). This examination has the ability to provide an in-depth detail of the pathological causes of dementia experienced by the patient and this examination even helps in identifying which form of dementia a person was suffering from. This form of examination even provides insight regarding how well different treatment options have worked in helping the demented person and how accurately clinical as well as neurologists were in diagnosing the dementia being suffered (Lowe, 2014). This examination is even useful in providing accurate statistics for the causes and risk factors of dementia. While conducted this form of examination a forensic pathologist along with a practicing neurologist can help in increasing the effectiveness of the diagnosis. In order to conduct a post-mortem examination on the brain of a demented person the pathologist first removes the brain and the pathologist conducts a microscopic examination of an individual’s organ systems (Lowe, 2014). For example, the skull of a demented individual may be explored with microscopic examination technique in order to identify the internal bruises on the skull. This may help in identifying the damage done to the brain as a result of falls. Furthermore, a microscopic examination of a demented person’s cardiovascular system can be of immense help in diagnosing vascular dementia as it is quite closely linked with cardiac issues and diseases (Lowe, 2014). Treatment And Prevention The treatment as well as prevention of dementia is closely associated with the form and the stage of dementia that is being experienced by a demented person. Dome forms of dementia are reversible and their progression can be stopped. Dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease are not reversible and its progression is quite difficult to halt. Although Alzheimer’s is not a reversible dementia, but certain treatment options can help a demented person gain relief and relaxation from some of its symptoms. Drugs There are various medicines that are prescribed to dementia patients in relation to the symptoms they are suffering from. Donepezil is a drug that has been prescribed for a patient who is experiencing hallucinations as a result of dementia and this drug is especially prescribed to those who are suffering from Alzheimer’s as well as Lewy Bodies Dementia. Howard et al. conducted a study in order to identify the effectiveness of Donepezil for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and the researcher identified that those patients who continued to consume Donepezil scored 1.9 times better on the neurological examination called MMSE as compared to those patients who discontinued the drug (Howard et al., 2012). This research suggests that those Alzheimer’s patients that are being treated with Donepezil are more likely to recover from impairment of those brain functions that are tested through MMSE. Antipsychotics are drugs that are used to help cure the symptom of anger and aggression amongst patients who are demented. Schneider et al. conducted a study in order to identify the effectiveness of antipsychotics in treating the symptom of aggression experienced by those patients who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The researchers were able to identify that 32% of those study participants who had been prescribed with olanzapine experienced improvement in their levels of anger (Schneider et al., 2006). Nutrition And Exercise Various symptoms that are experienced by a demented individual are caused due to lack of proper nutrition and this is why it has been prescribed that symptoms of dementia can be reversed with the assistance of proper nutrients. Individuals who are suffering from the symptom of decline in the ability of recalling and storing information may be experiencing folic acid deficiency and consuming diets that contain folic acid can be really helpful in in enhancing the ability to memorize and recall. Similarly an individual who experiences immense confusion as well as other cognitive issues may be experiencing deficiency of vitamin called B12 and consumption of this vitamin through injections can be helpful in helping an individual solve their cognitive issues. Blundo et al. conducted a case study of an individual who was 72 years old and was suspected of suffering from frontotemporal dementia and in order to treat this patient B12 vitamin was prescribed to him. The researchers followed on the case after a period of 7 years and were able to identify that the symptoms of dementia that he was suffering had been reversed (Blundo et al., 2011). Other than nutrition, exercise can even be helpful in reversing symptoms of dementia and protecting an individual against developing dementia such as Alzheimer’s. Physical exercise can especially be quite helpful in reducing the risk of developing this psychological issue. BBC has reported a study that was conducted by the members of University of Cambridge and the study states that lack of indulgence in physical exercise is a major risk factor that can lead to development of dementia. BBC even states that one out of every three patients who are already suffering from Alzheimer’s could have been prevented from developing this psychological issue if they would have indulged in physical exercise (bbc.com, 2014). BBC even states that if people start exercising then alone in the region of United Kingdom, 200,000 cases of Alzheimer’s can be averted by the period of 2050 (bbc.com, 2014). Behavioral Intervention Other than medication, nutrition and exercise, dementia patients and their symptoms can even be treated through behavioral interventions. These interventions need to be designed in consistency with the symptoms suffered by different patients of dementia. For example, a patient of dementia may be suffering from immense anxiety and this patient can be provided with a behavioral therapy in order to reduce his/her anxiety levels. Ueda et al. conducted a review of literature in which the researchers identified that providing demented patients with music therapy had a moderate impact on the anxiety levels of demented patients. The researchers even identified that the impact was much larger when the therapy was provided for 3 or more months (Ueda et al., 2013). Conclusion The term dementia is utilized in order to refer to various symptoms suffered by an individual including the inability to memorize and recall information and these symptoms make it difficult for an individual to carry out daily activities such as taking care of personal hygiene. There are five different stages of dementia and with each stage; the symptoms of dementia experienced by an individual tend to become worse. There are various causes of dementia including age, family history, substance abuse, health diseases and traumatic injury to the brain. In order to diagnose dementia the best method is post-mortem examination but it can only be conducted after the death of an individual. Another method is neurological examination that is conducted through tests such as MMSE. Dementia and its symptoms can be treated through drugs, behavioral interventions as well as nutrition and exercises that target different symptoms suffered by a demented patient. 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Population based study on patients with traumatic brain injury suggests increased risk of dementia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 83, 11, 1080-5. Read More