Symptoms

In general, it can be said that the symptoms usually take a slow course. Often such a development can take years. At the beginning of dementia the following symptoms often develop: Of course, one has to keep in mind that the isolated occurrence of such symptoms can be quite normal and one can by no means draw direct conclusions about an impending dementia.

For this reason, these symptoms must be described as uncharacteristic (untypical). Typical symptoms, however, are: Other common symptoms that can, but need not, occur are the following:

Mood disorders (depression, (hypo-)manic phases, etc.) – Reduction of drive
Loss of interests and hobbies
Rejection of everything new
Increased forgetfulness with frequent misplacement of things
Decrease of mental abilities
Trivialisation of the increasing mental weaknesses
Loss of the ability to remember (especially new) things.
Patients forget things they knew before the onset of the disease, or mix up and confuse individual pieces of information such as birthdays (so-called time grid disorder)
Patients gradually lose the so-called orientation towards the person, time and situation. This is because new information can no longer be stored and old information is forgotten. – It becomes more and more difficult for patients to separate important from unimportant information.
Little by little, important decisions or transactions can hardly be carried out. – In the course of time the basic personality of the patient changes. People who used to be peaceful can suddenly become angry or people who used to be quarrelsome can become peaceful.

It can also lead to the strengthening of certain personality structures. – Disturbances in the linguistic expression (e.g. word finding disorders)

Disturbances in the execution of manual tasks
Disturbances in the recognition and naming of actually known objects
Increasing weight loss

Depression is a common symptom of dementia. It is easy to understand that the increasing loss of cognitive functions in the affected person can trigger a reactive depression.

Patients notice that many things do not work out as well as before, which leads to insecurity, resignation and social isolation. It is therefore important to strengthen the self-efficacy of the patients by means of suitable employment. In addition, the drug therapy of depression also plays an important role. When choosing an antidepressant, it should be remembered that tricyclic antidepressants can often worsen the symptoms of dementia due to their anticholinergic effect. Therefore, it is better to use drugs of a different class, e.g. citalopram.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis is typically made by a psychiatrist (specialist in psychiatry), a neurologist (specialist in neurology), or a psychologist. Often the clinical symptoms are very clear, so that the diagnosis can be made quickly and reliably. Often, however, there are indications of dementia, but these require further clarification.

Here, the so-called “test psychology” (e.g. watch test, mini-mental state test) is used. Most of these are tests that very quickly give an orienting impression of the type and extent of the disorder. The diagnosis is rounded off by physical findings that can be recorded (CT, MRT etc.

)Age When an organ such as the brain is “in use” for a long time, a completely normal and natural reduction in performance occurs. New things can no longer be learned so easily, old information is occasionally forgotten or confused. In contrast to “real” dementia, however, the changes in mood, personality and other characteristics mentioned above are usually missing.

Depression A typical feature of depression is the so-called “concentration disorder”. The extent of such a disorder can vary greatly. It can assume such a degree that psychiatrists (specialists in psychiatry) used to speak of “sham dementia” (pseudo-dementia).

The best answer to separate dementia from depression can only be found in the course of time. Depression is curable, so the symptoms (including concentration problems) will decrease as the symptoms improve. More information is available at: Depression Confusion states (delirium) Various diseases can trigger states of confusion that lead to disturbances in memory performance.

This typically results in a loss of orientation, incoherent thoughts and hallucinations. In contrast to the typical dementia development, delirium occurs very suddenly. It is also usually quite treatable, so that the memory disorders can quickly improve after treatment.

Typically, this type of confusion occurs, for example, in the context of withdrawal syndromes in alcohol addiction. SchizophreniaIn particular, poorly treated or poorly treatable courses of schizophrenia can also lead to a significant decline in mental performance (residual symptoms). Typically, however, schizophrenia is accompanied by a variety of other symptoms.

SimulationNot least, it must be remembered that there are people who could be “helped” to get a diagnosis of dementia and who therefore present symptoms that they must assume are typical of dementia. This can usually be seen through quite quickly by a trained diagnostician. (Of course, how is not to be betrayed here…)