Dementia describes a variety of brain disorders, and the 8 A's of dementia refer to a group of symptoms that commonly appear in individuals with dementia. The 8 A's consist of: anosognosia, agnosia, aphasia, apraxia, altered perception, amnesia, apathy and attentional deficits.
The 7 'A's of Dementia, or anosognosia, amnesia, aphasia, agnosia, apraxia, altered perception and apathy, represent changes that can happen in dementia patients because of damage to their brain(opens in a new tab).
The risk of Alzheimer's increases with age and is most common in people over 65. The symptoms of Alzheimer's are commonly referred to as the 5 A's of Alzheimer's which include: Amnesia, Apraxia, Agnosia, Aphasia, and Anomia. Often the most recognized symptom, which refers to memory loss.
GDS-Global Deterioration Scale
This rating scale is a clinician-rated staging scale that is scored from 1 (normal) to 7 (advanced dementia). It evaluates disease severity. This rating scale is a structured interview with the patient and an informant that is scored from 0 (no impairment) to 3 (severe impairment).
Signs and symptoms
The four A's of Alzheimer's disease are: amnesia, aphasia, apraxia, and agnosia. Amnesia. Amnesia, the most common sign of Alzheimer's disease, refers to loss of memory.
The greatest known risk factor for Alzheimer's and other dementias is increasing age, but these disorders are not a normal part of aging. While age increases risk, it is not a direct cause of Alzheimer's. Most individuals with the disease are 65 and older. After age 65, the risk of Alzheimer's doubles every five years.
SPECAL sense begins with three Golden Rules: Don't ask direct questions. Listen to the expert – the person with dementia – and learn from them. Don't contradict.
Scores on the MMSE range from 0 to 30, with scores of 25 or higher being traditionally considered normal. Scores less than 10 generally indicate severe impairment, while scores between 10 and 20 indicate moderate dementia. People with early stage Alzheimer's disease tend to score in the 20 to 25 range.
Thyroid, kidney, liver, heart and lung problems, urinary and chest infections and strokes are among the many medical conditions that can produce dementia-like symptoms.
Many people affected by dementia are concerned that they may inherit or pass on dementia. The majority of dementia is not inherited by children and grandchildren. In rarer types of dementia there may be a strong genetic link, but these are only a tiny proportion of overall cases of dementia.
Eating a balanced diet, exercising the mind and body regularly, having regular contact with others, and not drinking or smoking — these six “healthy lifestyle factors” were associated with better cognitive outcomes in older adults, in a large Chinese study conducted over a decade and published in the BMJ on Wednesday.
Stage 6: Severe Mental Decline/Moderately Severe Dementia Quality of life: Severe impact. Your loved one will not remember much or any of the past and may not recognize you and other family and friends.
This may continue into the night, making it hard for them to get enough sleep. This is sometimes known as 'sundowning' but is not necessarily linked to the sun setting or limited to the end of the day. Sundowning can happen at any stage of dementia but is more common during the middle stage and later stages.
The Mini-Cog test.
A third test, known as the Mini-Cog, takes 2 to 4 minutes to administer and involves asking patients to recall three words after drawing a picture of a clock. If a patient shows no difficulties recalling the words, it is inferred that he or she does not have dementia.
Introduction: The five-word test (5WT) is a serial verbal memory test with semantic cuing. It is proposed to rapidly evaluate memory of aging people and has previously shown its sensitivity and its specificity in identifying patients with AD.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. Alzheimer's disease starts in the brain many years before symptoms start to show. Early symptoms are mild and so don't stop someone doing their normal everyday activities. It's only later that symptoms become severe enough to be called 'dementia'.
People with symptoms of dementia are given tests to check their mental abilities, such as memory or thinking. These tests are known as cognitive assessments, and may be done initially by a GP. There are several different tests. A common one used by GPs is the General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition (GPCOG).
Patient assessment tools:
The GPCOG is a screening tool for cognitive impairment designed for use in primary care and is available in multiple languages. Mini-Cog - The Mini-Cog is a 3-minute test consisting of a recall test for memory and a scored clock-drawing test.
The Folstein Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a 30‐question assessment of cognitive function that evaluates attention and orientation, memory, registration, recall, calculation, language and ability to draw a complex polygon (Folstein 1975).
The 15 Words Test (15WT) is developed to investigate episodic memory problems in patients with brain disorders. It is the Dutch version of the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT; Rey, 1964; Deelman et al.
I'm going to discuss five of the most basic ones here: 1) Don't tell them they are wrong about something, 2) Don't argue with them, 3) Don't ask if they remember something, 4) Don't remind them that their spouse, parent or other loved one is dead, and 5) Don't bring up topics that may upset them.
1. Physical activity. Doing regular physical activity is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of dementia. It's good for your heart, circulation, weight and mental wellbeing.