Alzheimer’s Stages - Mild Cognitive, Moderate Cogntive, Severe Cognitive
Staging systems provide useful frames of reference for understanding how the disease may unfold and for making future plans. But it is important to note that not everyone will experience the same symptoms or progress at the same rate. People with Alzheimer’s die an average of four to six years after diagnosis, but the duration of the disease can vary from three to 20 years.In their most recent experiments to be reported in Madrid, the researchers used genetically engineered Alzheimer’s mice to test a new, non-invasive molecular diagnostic technology. Goldstein and his team directed a brief pulse of infrared light – barely visible to humans – into the eye of each of four non-anesthetized Alzheimer mice and four age-matched normal mice every month starting at five months of age. Analysis of how the light bounced back from the lens completely separated the two types of mice by 10 months of age, when amyloid lesions were not detectable in the brain or eye by conventional means.
The life span of patients with Alzheimer’s is generally reduced, although a patient may live anywhere from 3 to 20 years after diagnosis. The final phase of the disease may last from a few months to several years, during which time the patient becomes increasingly immobile and dysfunctional. Caregivers should understand the phases of this illness in order to help determine their own capacities for dealing with this painfully sad disease.
Identifying A Stage Of Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease is a medical issue that affects the mental faculties of individuals over time. The disease has been shown to progress in stages, which can be helpful in identifying for patients and families where things stand.
1. Normal function – this traditionally is seen as the stage of normality or “the calm before the storm”. Not really an actual symptom in itself, this stage of Alzheimer’s disease is often left off of most lists.
2. Very mild cognitive decline – this is the introduction of some mild memory loss. Individuals experiencing this stage of Alzheimer’s may have familiarity some lapses in memory as oppose to entire losses of it.
3. Mild cognitive decline - Severe cognitive impairment is associated with increased mortality, but the impact of mild cognitive impairment on survival remains unclear. Although there is doubt whether a simple test such as the mini-mental state examination has sufficient discriminatory power to detect mild cognitive impairment in elderly people, we determined the impact of borderline scores in this particular examination on survival in very elderly people.
4. Moderate cognitive decline - Half of the 183 patients in the Russian study received Dimebon; the other half were given a placebo or an inactive pill. Clinicians at the study sites then monitored the patients’ progress over the next year on five different outcomes. All of those in the study had mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
5.Severe cognitive decline - Cognitive decline was severe and occurred across a wide range of cognitive functions. The frequency of generalised tonic–clonic seizures was the strongest predictor of decline. Complex partial seizure frequency was associated with a decline in memory and executive skills but not in IQ. Seizure-related head injuries and advancing age carried a poor cognitive prognosis, whereas periods of remission were associated with a better cognitive outcome. Early age at onset was not implicated, and duration of epilepsy was a much less potent predictor of cognitive decline than has been reported in cross-sectional studies. No evidence indicated that a higher level of cognitive function protected against cognitive decline.
