Posted: 02/05/06 - 01:00 Post subject: Diagnosed with damentia
Can someone tell me more about dementia and Alzheimer's disease? My grandfather is 71 and he was diagnosed with it recently. I love him so much and can not stop worrying. Any information will be helpful. Thanks
Dementia is a progressive brain dysfunction that leads to a gradually increasing restriction of daily activities. The most well-known type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease. Dementia not only affects patients, but also those surrounding them, the family members. The reason for this is that patients with dementia require care in the long-term. Dementia is the loss of mental abilities and most commonly occurs late in life and five to eight percent of all persons over age 65 are demented. This percentage increases with age so twenty-five to fifty percent of people over 85 are affected. The affected person sometimes recognizes the first signs of dementia. Often family or friends first detect the problem but also the affected person. Early symptoms include memory loss and difficulty performing complex tasks. As the condition progresses the deficits become more pronounced and interfere further with daily activities. Symptoms of dementia are: marked loss of memory for recent events, loss of ability for abstract thought, planning and doing complex tasks, difficulty finding common words and names etc.
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