Dementia & Symptoms

Symptoms signaling the beginning stages of dementia are often subtle. Signs are usually identified in retrospect by either family members or health care professionals. Memory loss is not the only symptom to manifest itself in the earlier states. Individuals often have difficulty with language, reasoning, perceptual skills and exhibit personality changes.

Memory Loss

• The first sign of early dementia is often memory loss. People may not remember how to do their jobs, cook dinner, mow the yard or drive their cars. Names can become difficult to recollect, old memories may be vague and objects disappear without the patient remembering where he placed them.

Language and Disorientation

• Difficulty remembering words and understanding how to use language cohesively and logically becomes apparent. At first, the patient may begin forgetting simple words. As dementia progresses, so does the struggle for words. Individuals substitute inappropriate words, rendering their sentences incomprehensible. Disorientation occurs through a loss of time and placement. People who suffer from dementia can become lost on their own street without any clue of how to return home. Keeping track of time is difficult, and eventually time and space have no meaning.

Judgment and Abstract Thinking

• Judgment is poor or impaired. Patients may begin to dress inappropriately, wearing several shirts and no pants, or forget how to behave in certain situations. Abstract thinking is lost, numbers are gone and a person living with dementia may not even understand what needs to be done with numbers--such as balancing a checkbook or dialing a telephone.

Misplaced Items and Loss of Initiative

• Items are repeatedly lost in inappropriate places. Irons rest in the icebox, keys are stored in the bathroom sink and underclothes are thrown into the cookie jar. Initiative is gone. Men and women with dementia can become passive and need cues from others to get involved in daily activities.

Behavior and Personality

• Even mood and personality are affected. Changes are subtle at first, then escalate into violent mood swings as the disease processes. Confusion often sets in as patients can no longer make out where they are, what they're supposed to be doing or who they are with. They frighten easily and become suspicious of even close family and friends.