In general terms, dementia can be defined as the progressive loss of cognitive functions due to brain damage or disorders. This cognitive impairment causes inability to perform activities of daily living.
Actually, dementia itself is not a disease but a series of symptoms caused by a disease that, in some way, affect brain function.
That said, we speak of Alzheimer’s type dementia as a primary or cortical degenerative dementia, with the slow onset of memory, praxic, aphasic deficits and personality changes.
Age-related memory loss affects only memory, while in dementia other brain functions are compromised, as well as abilities to perform normal activities of daily living: difficulty remembering names of people and/or familiar objects, ease of misplacing things, disorientation with loss of habitual routes, problems doing tasks that were once simple, etc.
This section also includes senile dementia, which causes deterioration of memory and other reasoning abilities related to language, judgment or perception, which interferes with daily life and, in advanced stages, makes patients dependent. Senile dementia only occurs after the age of 65. It is an old term that generates confusion. Dementia does not mean senile, nor does Alzheimer’s disease.
What symptoms can alert us that a family member may be suffering from dementia or memory loss?
There are certain symptoms or attitudes that can alert us:
- Personality changes
- Difficulty communicating
- Memory loss
- Impaired ability to move or walk
- Reduced energy levels
- Inability to solve simple arithmetic operations
- Attention and orientation problems
When they increase in frequency or severity is when help should be sought with the specialist in Neuropsychology. Also when they interfere with activities of daily living, whether at work or at home.
How to help a family member who is losing memory and get him/her to go to therapy?
For the family, this is often a delicate and stressful time. In the initial stages the person with memory loss or dementia maintains good autonomy but behavioral changes appear where they may experience sudden mood swings, isolation, anger due to memory lapses, mistrust, rejection or denial that they need help… All these changes involve a process that takes time. Many family members are at a loss, feelings of doubt about the diagnosis, denial or lack of awareness of the problem may appear.
It is important to start treatment as soon as possible and not wait for symptoms to worsen. In the initial stages, although sometimes difficult, finally it is the patient himself who decides to go to the specialist because they know that “something is not right”.
What will the therapy for memory loss consist of?
First of all, the appropriate tests must be performed by the Neurology specialist, such as a physical and neurological examination, paraclinical tests such as EEG, CT, PET, regional cerebral blood flow measurements, lumbar puncture, etc.
Subsequently, the neuropsychologist performs the evaluation with specific tests, and is when the treatment plan adapted to the needs of each patient is detailed.
The ideal, for example, for a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, is to attend daily rehabilitation and work on all functions (affected and unaffected), so that those that are intact remain intact.
What will the results be like after therapy for memory loss?
The specialists involved would like patients to return to their “normal state”. Unfortunately, today there is no medication or treatment, but there is medication and cognitive rehabilitation that tries to make the disease of any type within the family of dementias go as slowly as possible and that patients remain autonomous.