DEMENTIA

Disorders of the Brain

Disorders of the Brain

Introduction

Dementia - is the scientific name of dementia, acquired by man as a result of illness or brain damage. (In this sense, dementia is different from congenital mental deficiency or mental retardation.) The human body is a very complex system, all of which work cohesively to maintain vital functions. However, over time the body is aging and increasingly harmonized its subsystems may fail. In the neuro-psychiatric problems such failures are divided into cognitive, emotional and behavioral.

Dementia (dementia) related to cognitive impairment, although in its external manifestations, it may be closely associated with emotional (depression, apathy) and behavioral (nocturnal awakening, loss of hygiene) disorders. In other words, against the background of changing the behavior of cognitive impairment with dementia becomes scarcer gamma test their emotions, dementia patient deteriorates as a person (Edwards, 1993).

Cognitive impairment may have razuyu severity. In the very mild (mild cognitive impairment), they occur sporadically and do not attract much attention (crash when performing simple arithmetic operations, forgotten on the table keys, etc.). In the more severe form (mild cognitive impairment), they can appear on a regular basis and are seen as a significant deviation from the norm, but do not lead to loss of human autonomy, allowing you to perform usual activities at home and in professional activities. In contrast to the light and moderate cognitive impairment, dementia (dementia) - it is always difficult and often irreversible disorder that significantly affects the daily lives and in their social activity (in fact - their destruction).

Dementia (dementia) usually occurs in older people, so instead of the word "dementia" is used in the home of naming "senile dementia" and "senile." Among those over age 65 no less than 5% suffer from various forms of dementia.

Dementia, always wears a multifaceted: it manifests itself in several cognitive areas - in thinking, memory, attention, speech. Moreover, even in the early stages of violations are so significant that dementia affects and at home, and his career. One of the most insidious features of dementia is that after it happened, not only lost previously learned knowledge and skills, but also becomes more difficult the acquisition of new ones (Martyn & Gale, 2004).

Finally, an important sign of dementia - the relative stability of the manifestations of disorders. Emerging violations do not depend on the patient's state of mind (as opposed, for example, cases of delirium).

Forms of dementia

Although senile dementia (dementia) - by definition - a serious cognitive disorder, experts distinguish between dementia status by severity. The criterion for distinguishing between acts dependency patient care from others.

Ease of dementia - a condition in which the cognitive deficits reach such a level that lead to deterioration of the patient's competency, to a reduction in social activity (daily contact with family, colleagues, friends), to reduce its interest in the outside world (giving up hobbies and conventional forms of leisure activities). In mild dementia, the patient retains all the skills of self-service continues to operate normally navigate within your own ...