Elderly Patients & Dementia

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, dementia is common among elderly patients; however, dementia is not a normal consequence of aging and it is symptomatic of an illness or injury.

Dementia

• Dementia is not a specific disease; rather, it refers to a group of symptoms. Types of irreversible dementia include Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia and frontotemporal dementia.

Symptoms

• Symptoms of dementia among elderly patients may include memory loss, loss of cognitive functioning, loss of language capacity, disorientation and inappropriate beha vior.

Alzheimer's Disease

• Alzheimer's disease, which usually begins after the age of 60, is the most common cause of dementia among elderly patients.

Considerations

• According to a study published in 2010 in the American Journal of Epidemiology, untreated vision problems are associated with dementia among the elderly. A 2010 article from Science Daily states that vision is essential to mentally stimulating activities that may decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, such as reading.

Treatment

• Aricept, Exelon, Razadyne and Namenda are drugs that may help to slow the progression of dementia in Alzheimer's disease patients. According to the Mayo Clinic, there is no standard treatment for dementia, and different forms of dementia may need to be treated in different ways.