Dementia- Types of Dementia

Transcript

“Other types of dementias, such as Lewy body dementia, there can be very early onset changes in behavior. People can become more suspicious or paranoid. They can start having hallucinations. In Alzheimer’s disease, these kinds of symptoms typically develop much later, rather than at the early stages of the disease. With Lewy body dementia, one of the hallmark features is that people really start to have hallucinations or other behavioral changes early on. In addition, those with Lewy body dementia can develop Parkinson-like features. They have stiffness, slowing of movement, shuffling, whereas in Alzheimer’s disease typically one’s physical function is completely fine until the late stages of the disease. Another unique type of dementia is frontal temporal dementia. It it is less common than Lewy body dementia and vascular dementia, but it does have some distinguishing features. And again, those tend to involve functions of the frontal lobe and the temporal lobes.

So with frontal lobe dysfunction, you can develop personality changes, become more impulsive or very apathetic. With temporal lobe function, those are the areas typically involved in speech. So the person may have difficulty speaking, forming sentences, but again, beyond what you would expect for normal aging. As the disease progresses, generally all people with dementia, regardless of type, will will need more assistance. They will forget how to take their medications. They will need help in picking out clothing and prompts to pay attention to hygiene. One particular worrisome sign of dementia of all types is sudden and dramatic weight loss over the course of a few months. This is often due to the person forgetting to eat meals or not having interest in eating. Weight loss can be very dramatic, particularly after the early stages of dementia.”