Alzheimer's Disease: An Overview
Disease description and possible misconceptions
Alzheimer's disease is one of, although not the only type, of dementia elderly patients may suffer. The most common form of the illness occurs after age 60. Early-onset Alzheimer's disease before the age of 60 is less common, but the symptoms and worsening of the illness tends to be swifter in nature. Early-onset Alzheimer's disease has a known genetic component. "Certain genes...such as APOE epsilon4 allele" are linked to a greater likelihood of developing Alzheimer's (Jasmin 2010). In older patients, the difference between dementia and Alzheimer's can be difficult to determine. "The only way to know for certain that someone has AD is to examine a sample of their brain tissue after death," to determine if the tissue sample exhibits neurofibrillary tangles, "twisted fragments of protein within nerve cells that clog up the cell;" neuritic plaques, "abnormal clusters of dead and dying nerve cells, other brain cells, and protein;" and senile plaques, "areas where products of dying nerve cells have accumulated around protein" (Jasmin 2010). "Brain lesions in both early and late-onset AD are the same, and in the same distribution pattern, as those seen in individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) and in smaller numbers in normal older individuals" (Harman 2000: 147).
One common misconception about Alzheimer's is that all forms of forgetfulness linked to age are an early manifestation of the disorder. Some forgetfulness is normal at any age. Dietary deficiencies, strokes, brain tumors, and over-medication can produce some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's and must be ruled out before a formal diagnosis is made (Jasmin 2010). However, with persons suffering from Alzheimer's, the forgetfulness is consistent and has no other discernible cause. Eventually, the person will forget how to do routine tasks and identify the names and faces even of close family members. During the later stages of the illness, the person exists in a state of total...
94). The modern legal definition of disease provides a useful starting point for an examination of the concept of disease and how it is regarded by various disciplines. According to Black's Law Dictionary (1990), disease is a "deviation from the healthy or normal condition of any of the functions or tissues of the body. An alternation in the state of the body or some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing
Cognitive Testing SAGE Cognitive Test for Detecting Early Signs of Alzheimer's The Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination, also known as the SAGE test is meant for at-home administration by older adults in order to test the strength of their memory and other cognitive functioning. It was originally designed by researchers at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center. Dr. Douglas Scharre from the Wexner Medical School created the test and published it in early
Neither is any proper information available on the cost of treatment and care giving. In the absence of old age homes and nursing centers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there is lack of information on how to properly take care and handle those old aged people who are suffering from the Alzheimer's disease. Such patients who live with their families and relatives are unable to receive proper treatment
Frontal-Temporal Dementia (Frontotemporal Dementia) Frontal-Temporal Dementia Dementia is a collective term, which includes chronic cognitive disorders, which lead to loss of independent functioning. There are different types of dementia, and statistics show that it affects 3.4 million people in the United States alone (DiZazzo-Miller et al., 2014). Notably, the most affected people are the elderly, which suggests that the risk of dementia increases with age, and this further show that dementia is
Mental Health Treatment Approaches for Older AdultsOverview of mental health issues in the elderlyOld age is a natural occurrence for every human being, a stage in growth accompanied by several changes, which can be negative and identified as problems. Some of these problems are a rise in morbidity, mortality, hospitalization, and functional status loss. A large number of evidence associates these problems with common mental disorders to which the elderly
AdaptationScientists are working to understand the complex changes in the brain that lead to Alzheimer\\\'s disease. It\\\'s thought these changes could start happening more than ten years before we see symptoms, such as memory loss. In simple terms, the brain develops harmful protein clusters and healthy brain cells stop working properly, losing their connections and eventually dying. Initially, these changes happen in the brain\\\'s memory center. But as the disease
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