Symptoms of Late Stage Dementia

Dementia is a brain disorder involving memory loss and cognitive changes. It is a progressive disease that can take ten or more years to destroy brain cells, causing the inability to remember, learn or reason. Dementia eventually robs the body of the ability to function properly.

Time

• In the late stage of dementia, patients confuse the past and present. They cannot distinguish between fifty years ago and yesterday.

Recognition

• Patients may not recognize family members or familiar places, such as their own home. They may think their child is their spouse.

Communication

• In the late stage of dementia, verbal skills are diminished, resulting in the inability to talk coherently. The patient may not speak at all.

Physical

• Patients fall and may not be able to walk. Incontinence is evident as well as the inability to swallow.

Emotions

• Late stage dementia causes behavioral problems, hallucinations and moodiness. Patients become delirious.