The Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment of the Alzheimer’s Disease
This paper discusses about Alzheimer’s disease. The paper tackles its causes, symptoms, how the disease can be diagnosed and be treated.
Alzheimer’s disease, AD, is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is a general decline in a person’s mental abilities that affects memory, problem solving, learning and other mental functions. In medical term, AD is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterized by abnormal clumps and tangled bundles of fibers in the brain and composed of misplaced proteins. This disease usually occurs on aging people beyond 65. It affects areas of the brain which include the frontal lobe, temporal lobe and parietal lobe which is accountable for memory, intelligence, judgment, language and behavior of a person (, 2005).
This mental deterioration in old age has been identified by a German physician Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1906 by performing an autopsy of an old woman’s brain. Named after him, this disease has no known cause and no obvious inheritance pattern. However, a family history of dementia and Down syndrome are the two definite factors that increase the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
It is estimated that there are nearly 18 million people worldwide suffering from AD, approximately 59,000 victims die and 350,000 new cases of Alzheimer’s disease are diagnosed each year (, 2006).
Typically, symptoms of AD include memory loss; inability to use judgment and make decisions; confusion about what time and day it is; getting lost in familiar places; difficulty learning and remembering new information; difficulty expressing oneself; and decreasing ability to perform everyday tasks such as eating, dressing, bathing or using the toilet. Hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia are also common while some people may become verbally or physically aggressive or abusive.
Alzheimer’s disease can be diagnosed after a careful physical and medical history examination and evaluation of the person’s mental and functional status. Also, several tissue findings should be analyzed. Brain tissues can be analyzed through brain scans such as Computer-Assisted Tomography (CAT) scans, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan, and Single Photo Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT) scan, as well as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), that may help examine one’s brain and identify changes in the brain’s structures that may be related to AD but may not provide enough evidence for a diagnosis although can rule out possible causes of the symptoms.
There is still no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease so the treatment of this disease focuses on improving memory and daily functioning, dealing with new and unusual behaviors and treating other conditions that commonly occur with Alzheimer’s disease such as depression. Medicines given to Alzheimer’s patients are just for the alleviation of some cognitive symptoms. Other medications are for the control of behavioral symptoms such as sleeplessness, agitation, wandering, anxiety and depression. Family and environment plays an important role in the improvement of lives of Alzheimer’s patients.
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