Dementia
Dementia is classified as a clinical syndrome rather than a disease, it is a general
term for progressive decline in mental ability that affect memory, thinking, behaviour
and emotions. Although it mainly affects the elderly, it can also affect individuals
under the age of 65 known as young onset dementia. Patients affected may not be
able care for themselves and will need help as it interferes with their daily life.
There is currently no cure for dementia, however, early diagnosis of the disease
is essential to prevent it from deteriorating.
Click here to take an assessment for Dementia
There are many causes of dementia with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common, other common forms of dementia include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy
bodies and fronto-temporal dementia.
Common Dementia Symptoms may include:
- Problems remembering things or events that happened recently
- Disturbance of language function (receptive and/or expressive) such as difficulty
in finding words to express his/herself in a conversation
- Difficulty in performing activities of daily living
- Failure to identify or recognise familiar people or objects
- Personality and mood changes
Dementia places heavy burdens on the patient, their families and care-givers, and
also places stress on health and social systems as the patients usually requires
long-term care. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that by 2050, almost
2 billion people will be over the age of sixty and the world Alzheimer report 2015
predicted that about 131.5 million people will suffer from dementia.
Source: Alzheimer's Disease
International
Dementia affects almost 50 million people in the world in 2017 and will almost double
every 20 years. It is predicted that a new case of dementia will occur every 3 seconds. Greater awareness and understanding
of Dementia is important because it is common to interpret it as "senility" which
reflects the formerly widespread but a misconception that serious decline in mental
ability is part and parcel of ageing.