Symptoms
An important aspect of this disease is that it starts off slowly and gets worse over time. These are a couple of symptoms that will help you recognise Alzheimer’s disease:
- Memory loss: This is the most common symptom. People start to have trouble retaining new information. They start to forget things about recent events of conversations, for example. Problems with reading, talking, writing and maths start to arise as well.
- Cognitive functions: The ability to think, judge/decide and understand is slowly lost. Taking initiative and acting independently starts to become difficult. Social skills start to degenerate and people can get disoriented about time and/or place.
- Losing grip on reality: Alzheimer patients can start to become suspicious or paranoid. Half of all patients have delusions: beliefs that don’t comply with reality. Because of the paranoia and suspicions, patients can think they’ve been stolen from or lied to by their partners or carers. Hallucinations are also a common symptom.
- Problems with everyday activities: Activities that have always been the most natural thing in the world are now done with more difficulty and clumsiness. At the same time, common social relations can remain intact for a long time. This is why it might appear to the outside world as if everything is alright.
Treatment
There is still no cure for Alzheimer’s, but there are certain medicines and therapies that can help make the lives of patients a little bit easier. There are medicines that are said to inhibit early Alzheimer’s, but the opinions on these medicines are divided. Several doctors claim that the side effects of the medicines are bigger than the inhibitory effect on the brain disease. Therapy is mostly about support and guidance and focuses on the question: “How can we make sure the patient feels most comfortable and safe?” The goal is to make sure patients can live at home for as long as possible. People with Alzheimer’s are said to function better when they still live at home.
Source: Hersenstichting, NHS | Image: video still, YouTube
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