Stages of Alzheimer's: how to diagnose a dangerous disease in a timely manner
Alzheimer's disease has long been considered a pathology that affects only the elderly. But today the anomaly debuts quite often even when a person steps over a forty-year boundary. There are four stages of Alzheimer's. It is important to consider that early diagnosis allows not only to alleviate the patient's condition, but also completely eliminate anxiety symptoms.
General Information
The exact causes of Alzheimer's disease are not yet established. However, specialists in the field of medicine were able to identify the following factors that provoke the development of a terrible disease:
- Age( at risk group are people who have crossed the sixty-year threshold).
- Excess weight.
- Head trauma.
- Hypertension.
- Presence of close relatives suffering from similar signs.
The most common disease affects women.
Symptoms of
There are four stages of Alzheimer's:
- prodemia;
- early dementia;
- mild dementia;
- severe dementia.
Specific features of the
prodemia The peculiarity of this stage of Alzheimer's disease is that its symptoms are often confused with common signs of aging of the body of an elderly person.
The earliest signs can appear eight years before the diagnosis is made.
At this stage of Alzheimer's disease, the most "everyday" signs associated with the performance( or rather the impossibility or difficulty of performing) of a task that previously did not represent any difficulty for a person are observed.
A key symptom of premature is a memory disorder. It manifests itself in the fact that the patient strenuously tries to recall the phrases that were learned a while ago.
Also a person experiences some problems associated with focusing on a particular subject or phenomenon. It becomes difficult for him to plan, abstract thinking deteriorates noticeably.
Another sign of hypotension is apathy. This symptom itself the patient often confuses with a sign of a depressive state.
Features of early dementia
This stage of Alzheimer's disease shows a pathological memory loss, which often contributes to the confirmation of the diagnosis. Also, at the stage of early dementia, some disturbances in the patient's speech are observed. Suffices and perception. The vocabulary of the patient is greatly depleted. Even if the patient was a teacher of the Russian language and literature, his speech becomes sketchy, he encounters difficulties in formulating his thoughts.
Difficulties concern both oral and written speech.
In addition, the stage of early dementia is manifested in the fact that the patient is experiencing serious difficulties associated with disguise. He loses the logic of action and can not do without the help of an outsider.
Features of the moderate stage of
At this stage of Alzheimer's disease, the patient's condition becomes noticeably worse. Often a person completely loses the possibility of independent realization of this or that action. In addition to speech disorders, there is a gradual loss of reading and writing skills.
The main feature of this stage is the loss of the ability to recognize loved ones.
A person left unattended can leave the house and get lost. The exacerbation of symptoms occurs mainly in the evening. Also the patient becomes irritable and aggressive, often upset and crying.
In addition, at the stage of moderate dementia the following signs of Alzheimer's disease are observed:
- False identification.
- Urinary incontinence.
- Delirium.
These symptoms are typical for about thirty percent of people with Alzheimer's disease. At this stage, the patient's relatives encounter the need to put him in a hospital.
Features of the severe stage of
At the last stage of Alzheimer's disease a person completely loses not only speech, but also the skills of verbal communication. However, the person understands emotions and addresses to their address.
Often at this stage, a person is still aggressive, but this symptom is increasingly combined with general exhaustion. The patient loses the ability to move independently. He can not take food independently either.
It is noteworthy that the lethal outcome does not occur as a result of increased symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Most often a person dies because of pressure ulcers or pneumonia.
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