Early signs of Dementia

Dementia is an umbrella term which is defined as neurodegenerative disorder. Dementia is defined as the deterioration in cognitive abilities, thinking abilities, judgment, decision making and impacts individual’s daily living activity. Dementia is characterized as an old age disease which has no cure. Dementia is of various types and the most common type of Dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. According to the World health organization (WHO), worldwide there are nearly 10 million new cases of dementia every year. There is lack of awareness and stigmatization of the disease worldwide causing difficulty in implementation of non-pharmacological treatment for the dementia patients. Lack of awareness causes, difficulty in observing early signs of dementia patients.

Here are some early signs of Dementia that can be observed:

• Personality Change: A person with early dementia may undergo subtle personality changes initially like become suspicious, irritable, and aggressive. Frequent mood swings are also observed in such patient. For instance, an individual can suddenly become too calm or too restless for a given situation.

• Disorientation: A person with Dementia can be disoriented to the day, date, time and place. He or she may forget familiar travel routes and experience loss of way.

• Apathy: A person suffering from dementia loses interest in his/her hobbies, finds difficulty in socializing which tends to impact their self-confidence and self-esteem.

• Confusion: A person can have confusion while performing any task. For instance s/he can be confused while using their regular gadgets.

• Repetitive Behavior: Dementia patient can repeat same questions or situations various times, which indicates the loss of recent memory.

• Recalling: Dementia patient can misplace things like keys, mobile phone, and their wallet and face difficulties while recalling the same. They can also face difficulty in recognizing familiar places or routes. They may also forget what they ate in their meals and other routine activities.

• Difficulty completing their daily living activities: Individual with Dementia can face difficulty while following their activities of daily living like bathing, toileting, and grooming.

• Difficulty in communicating: A person with Dementia will have difficulty in maintaining a meaningful conversation. They might forget using simple words while having a conversation.

• Recognizing familiar people: Facing difficulty while recalling familiar names and faces is a common sign that can be observed in a patient suffering from dementia.

• Miscalculations: Individual can face difficulty while doing simple calculation or handling money.

The symptoms may vary from person to person and may also change from day-to-day. Progression of the disease depends upon individual’s age, personality, health, and lifestyle routine. It can be prevented by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, intake of a balanced diet, reducing the consumption of alcohol or smoking, and actively engaging the mind cognitively.

It is advisable to have your loved one tested for Dementia at an early stage so that an intervention can be planned to benefit them. A simple cognitive evaluation can help identify the onset of Dementia. Caring for a Dementia patient is a costly affair and very stressful for the families, so early detection can help delay the progression of the illness. Patients suffering from Dementia need a lot of love and care to help them stay happy and healthy.

We at Samvedna Care have been working in Dementia Care since 2013. Our team of experts can help you with the diagnosis and detection of Dementia, we provide cognitive assessments, psychiatric consultation, and psychological assessments. We will provide you the best advice on dementia diagnosis so that you can provide good care for your loved one. Reach out to Samvedna Care for any queries on managing Dementia Care.