Senile Demetia - Causes and Treatment
Senile dementia is an outdated term once used to refer to any form of dementia that occurred in older people. Dementia is a group of symptoms characterized by a decline in intellectual functioning severe enough to interfere with a person’s normal daily activities and social relationships. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in older persons.
Dementia is a medical condition that interferes with the way the brain works. Symptoms include anxiety, paranoia, personality changes, lack of initiative, and difficulty acquiring new skills. Besides Alzheimer’s disease, some other types or causes of dementia include: alcoholic dementia, depression, delirium, HIV/AIDS-related dementia, Huntington’s disease (a disorder of the nervous system), inflammatory disease (for example, syphilis), vascular dementia (blood vessel disease in the brain), tumors, and Parkinson’s disease.
What Causes Senile Dementia?
All forms of dementia result from the death of nerve cells and/or the loss of communication among these cells. The human brain is a very complex and intricate machine and many factors can interfere with its functioning. Researchers have uncovered many of these factors, but they have not yet been able to fit these puzzle pieces together in order to form a complete picture of how dementias develop.
Tips For Caring For A Person With Alzheimer’s Disease
1. Scheduling visitors to avoid surprises and have something to look forward to. Even if the elder with dementia does not recognize those who visit, the contact is nonetheless valuable for them.
2. Establishing routines in activities of daily living
3. Maintaining social contacts and fun
4. Watch out for confusion and loss of attention span. Is the person unable to focus on a normal conversation? Does he or she get mixed up when trying to perform basic tasks?
5. Watch for physical coordination problems and physical confusion. People with senile dementia often forget how to do simple learned tasks that have been part of their daily life for many years.
Music therapy holds a promise for many of those who are affected by age-related disorders. It is being recommended as an effective cure not only in memory loss but also for working with people who have movement disorders.
Treatment for Senile Dementia
Investigations will be carried out to exclude other causes of dementia. This is important, because some of these can be partly or completely treated. X-rays may include a chest x-ray, skull x-ray or angiography (which is where a dye is injected into a blood vessel and then x-rays are taken). Often a CT scan (a computer-controlled x-ray of the brain) will be done to exclude a tumour or blockage in the fluid system that bathes the brain. If a blockage seems likely an operation may be advised whereby a tube is passed from the head to the heart.
However, neither the clinical ratings nor an extensive pre- versus post-treatment series of cognitive tests revealed changes in memory or other cognitive functions. Since a similar separate study with a different compound produced no behavioral changes, it is unlikely that the improvement with deanol was due entirely to placebo effects. The results thus suggest that although deanol may not improve memory, it may produce positive behavioral changes in some senile patients.
