Dementia is a neurological disease in which the loss of mental abilities occurs in the course of the disease. As a result, those affected lose the ability to find their way around in everyday life. Depending on the form of dementia, the symptoms are somewhat different.
In the foreground are usually the memory disorders. The ability to remember and remember is considerably impaired. This plays a major role in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia even in its early stages. In frontotemporal dementia (Pick’s disease), the personality initially changes, and patients are easily irritable and aggressive. Only in the course of the disease do the above-mentioned memory disorders develop.
Forgetfulness as a symptom of dementia
A decline in memory performance as well as increasing forgetfulness can have many causes; from normal absent-mindedness to stress and dementia. In the early stages it is therefore important to find out whether the cause is a harmless temporary one (e.g. stress, sleep disturbance, lack of fluids) or a treatable one (e.g. depression).
If depression is treated, cognitive performance often improves. If these possibilities have been excluded, one can think of incipient dementia. A reduced ability to think and remember is the classic symptom.
Every person forgets a name or an appointment. However, if these incidents accumulate and states of confusion occur, this is a warning symptom for dementia. In addition, there are orientation problems.
Those affected suddenly find it difficult to find their way around places they know well. Even complex activities such as driving a car, shopping or using public transport are difficult for the patients. This is ultimately an important point when it comes to determining whether memory disorders are signs of dementia.
Loss of orientation as a symptom of dementia
It can happen to anyone that in times of stress one or the other day of the week is mixed up or that you get lost in a strange environment. This is not always immediately worrying. However, for patients with beginning dementia, the difference is that they often cannot find their way around in places they know well, that they do not know where they are in their own street or cannot say how they got home.
These spatial and temporal orientation problems are classic symptoms of dementia. As the disease progresses, those affected can no longer tell which year, month or day it is. The patients can no longer find their way around in their own home.
In the final stage, the patient forgets important biographical information such as their own name and date of birth. He cannot remember whether he has children or where he worked. This orientation towards oneself is the last thing that gets lost. In the early stages, the patient can usually still access this memory content.
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