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Dementia Term Paper

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Dementia originated from the Latin language meaning ‘mind gone’. The course of the disease declines to the last stage and the person will forget majority of his or her memory. The patient will go about his or her normal ways during the first stage of dementia; eyes and mind are clear. During the beginning of the last stage, the patient will depend on the caretaker for his or her needs and will not recall the things he or she has learned. In the last phase of the last stage, the patient will be “born again”, meaning he or she will derive from the end of his life to the beginning. Similar to the Alzheimer’s disease, the nerve cells in the brain become short. The brain will not function properly because of the shrinkage of the nerve cells, but …show more content…

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, dementia became a true medical condition. The disease was known to have symptoms of lack of memory, social, and mental disability. When the disease became more severe, people were sent to asylums “In 1907 Dr. Alois Alzheimer published a paper identifying a cluster of symptoms of dementia. These included reduced comprehension and memory, disorientation, unpredictable behavior and difficulties with communication. Thus Alzheimer’s disease was born.” (Welsch 17). Little care and little research were done for people who were suffering from the disease. If not taken care of at home, the person would be sent to a psych-ward facility. There was a debate concerning if dementia was a social or nurse profession. “Since the 1980s the profile of dementia has been raised and how it is viewed has changed. Sufferers are no longer seen as unfortunate victims of diseased brains for whom little can be done, but as fellow human beings capable of responding and enjoying human relationships and having a full bill of rights.” (Welsch 18). Caring for a dementia sufferer will become challenging to recover his or her life. Dementia remains untreatable, but there are medications provided to help prolong the memory of a sufferer. The drug, ‘anti-cholinesterase inhibitors’, helps postpone the effects that will show in the final stages. Supporting and caring for people with dementia will have a large impact on …show more content…

There are four main types’ dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and other dementia disorders. Dementias are considered to be neurodegenerative because of the death or nerve cells in the brain. These disorders are caused by toxic proteins stored in the brain. The abnormal proteins will cause the brain function to weaken, which will eventually lead to dead cells. The proteins also damage the spaces in between the nerves causing them to transmit improperly. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, named after Alois Alzheimer, a German neurologist. In one case, there was a woman who began having hallucinations, disorientations, and memory loss. It increased over the years until her death at the age of 55. Vascular dementia, the second most common dementia. A disease when the blood vessels become affected in the brain. It is similar to the Alzheimer’s disease because it has been called to be the ‘forgotten’ dementia. In contrast to the Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia results from multiple causes, like “haemodynamic (blood flow to the brain) disorders (for example, strokes), thromboembolism (small blood clots originating mainly from the carotid artery or heart that block small blood vessels in the brain), small blood vessel disease in the brain (which results in a gradual reduction in blood supply to the brain), and heamorrhage (bleeding) into or around

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