This image shows an aged man suffering from Alzheimer’s wandering alone at night.
Alzheimer’s is a progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain’s neurons. As a result these neurons or brain cells which produce brain chemicals break connection with the other nerve cells present and ultimately die.
This is the most common form of Dementia, resulting in loss of memory, thinking and language skills.
FACTS
Women have 2 times more chance of having Alzheimer when compared to men.
SYMPTOMS
The origin of Alzheimer’s disorder dates back to 1906, when Dr Alois Alzheimer a German physician presented a case history of a 51 year old woman who suffered from a rare type of brain disorder. The autopsy report identified damages to the brain, which is similar to that of a person suffering from Alzheimers.
Hence this disorder was named after Dr Alois Alzheimer.
- Changes in behaviour and personality:
- Delusions
- Changes in sleeping habits
- Frequently getting irritated
- Being unusually aggressive
- Wandering alone
- Doubting others frequently
- Mood swings
- Social withdrawal
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Other symptoms in early stage:
- Difficulty in recognising familiar people
- Forgetting where they have kept things
- Difficulty in recalling names or numbers
- Performing familiar day to day tasks become difficult
- Feeling withdrawn in social situations
- In middle stage:
- Problems in basic activities like bathing, dressing up without help
- Difficulty in understanding new situations
- Disoriented and confused even in familiar surroundings
- Cant think clearly or solve problems
- Loss in memory, can’t remember their address, current year, names of people
- In last stage
- Complete loss of short and long term memory
- Impaired ability to communicate
- Unable to walk, move or sit without help
- Extreme Personality changes like hostility and aggressiveness
- Unable to remember family members
CASE STUDIES
Mr S G age 54, started to forget the recipe’s of the dishes he used to love to cook for breakfast, after that he started to write down the recipe’s, but then while cooking he couldn’t recall, what ingredients he had put and what all is left to add. Gradually he couldn’t sleep at night and used to fall asleep at odd times in the day. He stopped going out and meeting his friends, which he used to love earlier. His mood became increasingly imbalanced as he got aggressive and hyper at times and extremely depressed on other times. He started suspecting his wife excessively and thought she is having an affair and is planning to leave him soon. His wife was disturbed by his change in behaviour, but she got alarmed one day, when he failed to recognise her brother, who visited them at their residence. She brought him to the clinic and after evaluating him, it was found out that he had suffered severe memory loss, accompanied by baseless doubts of his wife having an affair; he was unusually aggressive and anxious during the course of the interview. Further neurological test, MRI and CT scan confirmed he was progressing towards the second stage of Alzheimer’s.
