Alzheimer’s dementia
A German doctor, Alois Alzheimer first described this dementia in 1907 when he identified the classic amyloid plaques during an autopsy in the brain of a patient he had been treating with unusual symptoms. Subsequently this pattern of disease would become known as Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer’s dementia is the most common neurodegenerative disease accounting for 50-70% of all dementia. Unfortunately, it is a progressive dementia caused by degeneration of brain cells secondary to the build-up of amyloid plaque within the brain. Diagnosis is based on identification of amyloid plaque on brain scanning and much research is directed into halting the accumulation of this destructive protein. While some new medical therapies can slow the progression of Alzheimer's dementia there is still no cure.
Alzheimer’s dementia is commonly not diagnosed for three or more years after the initial symptoms are noted by family and friends. Early symptoms are short term memory loss that may be noted as frequent memory loss within conversations, repetition in conversation and vagueness about the content of a conversation. Long term memory is often preserved until late in the disease.
Other symptoms of Alzheimer's dementia might be:
- Trouble finding the right word
- Slowness in processing instructions or questions
- Poor organisation
- Loss of problem solving skills
- Disorientation even in well-known places
- Behavioural changes
- Mood and personality changes
- Anxiety and depression are common symptoms in the early stages
Dr. Wright is able to prescribe a number of revolutionary cognitive enhancers that can slow, and in some cases, reverse the early signs of dementia. Cognitive enhancers can only be prescribed by a neurologist, psychiatrist or a geriatrician.
Vascular dementia
A healthy blood supply is vital to a healthy brain. If the blood vessels are unhealthy, such as in diabetics or those who have had prolonged hypertension, small strokes can occur. Cognitive function can be impacted by multiple small strokes, each one on its own may not be noticed but the cumulative effect may lead to memory loss and other symptoms of dementia. It is important to diagnose vascular dementia as a separate cause of dementia as treatment of elevated blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol can slow and even halt the progression of memory loss.
The changes that can occur with vascular dementia are somewhat different to those that occur in Alzheimer's dementia and include:
- Change in reasoning
- Loss of ability to plan
- Poor judgement
- Memory loss occurs but is less prominent than in Alzheimer's
- Changes in behaviour
- Decreased mobility
- Loss of continence
Treatment is targeted at optimising vascular risk factors and management of existing symptoms. Vascular dementia may occur at the same time as Alzheimer’s disease and in this case, there may be a role for cognitive enhancing medication.
Other dementia types:
- Parkinson's disease with dementia
- Behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia
- Semantic dementia
- Progressive non-fluent aphasia
- Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
- Lewy-Body dementia
- Alcohol-related dementia
- Prion disease
- Huntington disease
- HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder