Dementia – Symptoms

Transcript

“Other symptoms and signs that can develop in particular with Alzheimer’s disease do include behavioral changes with paranoia or agitation. One sign in particular, one symptom in particular, is sundowning. Sundowning is a phenomenon where people will become more confused, potentially agitated or anxious as the amount of light outside decreases, typically in the late afternoon times. Other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in the late stages can include physical manifestations. People with Alzheimer’s disease can develop difficulty with walking and difficulty with swallowing. People have difficulty with their balance. Their walking can become slower. They can develop difficulty with putting on clothes. Usually they might require a walker or a cane, but typically they maintain the ability to walk throughout the illness. Swallowing difficulty can develop in the late stages as well. And unfortunately that can lead to aspiration, where food goes down into the trachea or saliva into the lung.

You can develop aspiration pneumonia. Other symptoms of vascular dementia in particular, typically affects executive functioning. So executive functioning is the type of brain functioning or cognitive functioning involving planning and executing ideas, keeping track of your daily routine. In vascular dementia, it can occur early on, versus with Alzheimer’s, typically the initial symptoms are short-term memory loss or memory for episodes or certain events. Long-term memories are typically preserved until the later stages of dementias. Long-term memories being childhood memories, names of relatives, address where you live, things that you have known for long periods of time, or you have rehearsed for many times, typically will be preserved until the late stages of dementia.”