Dementia Symptoms: Vital Signs of the condition that should not be ignored
DEMENTIA is a general term used for symptoms such as memory loss, confusion and personality change. There are a few early symptoms of dementia that could mean a person is at risk.
Dementia is caused by diseases of the brain.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common but other causes include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia. Dementia is a term given to describe different conditions which affect brain functioning.
Currently, there's no cure which is why recognising the early symptoms is important. Most people associate dementia with memory loss, but the condition can affect people in a wide variety of ways.
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Early Symptoms:
Sleep
People who have dementia finds it difficult to sleep. Meanwhile, different types of dementia are associated with different sleep problems. A person with dementia may keep getting up during the night and may become disorientated when they wake up.
Memory loss
This is a common symptom of dementia.
A person with dementia may find it difficult to remember and recall information.
People with dementia will often experience difficulties with their memory which interfere with their day-to-day activities.
"This memory loss is often due to damage in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which plays a very important role in memory. Damage to different parts of the brain will affect different kinds of memory.”
Difficulty planning or solving problems
A person with dementia may find it difficult to follow a plan and problem-solving may also get more challenging.
Developing a list of alternative strategies and having someone else to look at the situation and give suggestions will help with these problems.