The following are the major diseases or complications that may be contributed to by dementia or dementia-related symptoms:
Respiratory system (J00-J99)
- Pneumonia (pneumonia)
Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (E00-E90).
- Malnutrition (malnutrition)
- Malnutrition*
- Malnutrition
Infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99).
- Infections of all kinds
Mouth, esophagus (food pipe), stomach and intestines (K00-K67; K90-K93).
- Caries
- Constipation (constipation) – due to degenerative processes of the enteric nervous system (ENS; “abdominal brain”):
- The myenteric plexus (Auerbach’s plexus) between the annular and longitudinal muscle layers.
- The submucosal plexus (Meissner’s plexus) in the submucosa (tissue layer between the mucosa and the muscle layer)
This, in addition to intestinal motility (“ability of the intestine to move), regulates baseline gastrointestinal tone, secretion and absorption, which can lead to constipation refractory to therapy (“unresponsive to therapy”).
Psyche – Nervous System (F00-F99; G00-G99).
- Depression
- Delirium (acute state of confusion) (depression is considered a risk factor).
- Epilepsy (seizures; in the late stages of dementia).
- Those who develop epilepsy in old age are at increased risk of dementia; epilepsy also accelerates dementia
- Hallucinations
- Insomnia (sleep disturbances)
- Psychosis
- Sleep apnea (breathing cessation) – 9 out of 10 patients with dementia suffer from breathing cessation in an geriatric hospital setting; approximately 40% of patients had mild and nearly 48% had moderate to severe breathing cessation
- Social behavior disorders (in this case: Aggressiveness as part of the sundown syndrome: about 20% of Alzheimer’s patients show increasing confusion, disorientation, anxiety, irritation, and aggression in the evening when the sun goes down).
- Delusions
Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified (R00-R99).
- Abnormal weight loss/unintentional weight loss, up to and including kechexia (emaciation; very severe emaciation)* .
- Gait disturbances → fall and fracture (broken bone).
- Cachexia – emaciation of the organism (emaciation) due to profound disturbance of one or more organ functions.
- Speech disorders / speech disorders
- Syncope (momentary loss of consciousness)
- Underweight
Genitourinary system (kidneys, urinary tract – sex organs) (N00-N99)
- Urinary incontinence
Further
- Disinhibition
* Dementia patients lose about four times as much body weight annually as patients of the same age without dementia due to chronic inflammation (inflammatory processes), secondary diseases, and, in some cases, the increased urge to exercise
