Alzheimer's is one of the most common diseases of dementia in the elderly.
This disease is caused by the loss of brain cells slowly, not currently know the cause of this loss of neurons and therefore no effective treatment is known.
This loss of memory is:
• Short term: forget what you just did, happen.
• Long term: memories disappear.
Symptoms of dementia:
• Inability to learn new things.
• Recall information from the past.
• Inability to speak and express themselves clearly.
• Problems recognizing objects.
• Change in personality.
• In some cases they have problems to work and perform morning activities like showering.
• Many times there are cases of depression or anxiety.
• In extreme situations the patient does not remember anything of this, but remember what you did ten years ago. (You remember the past more than the present).
Is one of the diseases that affects people around 65 years old, has no effective treatment
and it is irreversible.
It is estimated that dementia doubles every five years from the coming 65years and to affect 30% of patients older than 85 years.
The loss of function is very slow and there are very long courses (over 15 years), can be divided into:
- First stage: From one to three years.
- Second stage: Two to ten years.
- Third stage: Eight to twelve years.
People with dementia require more patience, support and understanding. It is a difficult situation in which nurses have to care for both the patient and the family as the primary caregiver usually has a significant emotional distress.
I leave here a video of World Alzheimer's Day 2012, in which some people tell their experiences.
Hope you like it! I really found very moving and helpful to get in the position of the other person and understand from near this disease.
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Bibliografía:
1. Cacabelos
R. Enfermedad de Alzheimer. Barcelona: J.R. Prous, 1991.
2. Iqbal
K., McLachlan D.C.R., Winblad B., Wisniewski H.M. John Wiley & Sons.
Alzheimer’s disease: Basic mechanisms diagnosis and therapeutic
strategies. Chichester . 1991.
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