People with dementia often experience changes in their emotional responses. They may have less control over their feelings and how to express them. For example, someone may overreact to things, have rapid mood changes or feel irritable. They may also appear unusually distant or uninterested in things.
Changes in perception
Many people with dementia experience changes in how they understand the world around them. This is because in dementia there is damage to the brain, which can cause the person to experience things differently. Changes in perception include; misperceptions and misidentifications.
A person with dementia can feel confused. When they get something wrong they may feel annoyed and angry. They might feel upset with other people too. They may not know they are upset and can't descibe why they feel like that.
Many dementia patients are not aware of their condition. Memory loss and a loss of cognitive abilities are fundamental symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia, which makes it extremely difficult for sufferers to realize that they are having problems, or to understand their condition.
However, the truth is not always the answer for those with dementia. Lying to dementia patients can be the right way to care for them because: They don't remember the truth and repeatedly telling them or insisting on facts will only cause them distress and pain, especially when it comes to something emotional.
Although a person's own experience of living with dementia varies, as does their needs for care and support, common everyday challenges for people with dementia include washing, getting dressed, eating and bathing. Dementia is a progressive condition.
People with dementia may experience physical pain for the same reasons as everyone else. However, because of their declining brain function and abilities, they may be less able to communicate to their carers that they are in pain. This can result in under-treatment of their pain, and reduced quality of life.
The most obvious is that the person with dementia may lose the ability to tell us they are in pain. Additionally, carers and care staff often do not recognise when a person is in pain or do not know how to help.
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.
Changes in mood and personality
Individuals living with Alzheimer's may experience mood and personality changes. They can become confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious. They may be easily upset at home, with friends or when out of their comfort zone.
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.
A person with dementia is much more likely to become withdrawn because they feel isolated or bored. Many people with dementia spend much of their time alone or, even if they are with others, there may not be much conversation between them.
A person with Alzheimer's may believe a family member is stealing his or her possessions or that he or she is being followed by the police. This kind of suspicious delusion is sometimes referred to as paranoia. Although not grounded in reality, the situation is very real to the person with dementia.
In the fourth stage, people with dementia may completely shut out the outside world. They might sit in a chair or lie in bed staring straight into thin air, or they might have their eyes closed. They may not respond when someone walks into the room or speaks to them.
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.
Crying and Calling Out in People With Dementia. Calling or crying out can happen for many reasons in those with Alzheimer's disease or another forms of dementia. The triggers may include physical pain or hunger, psychological distress, or overstimulation in their environment.
Most of the contractures in persons with dementia are either of the soft-tissue type involving skin, subcutaneous tissue, tendons, and ligaments, or myogenic, where a muscle has been left in a non-neutral position. Both of these result in joint contractures with loss of ROM.
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.
This is why an Alzheimer's patient might remember an event from 20 years ago but can't remember what they did mere minutes ago. “First in, last out” is often used to describe the peculiar pattern of memory loss that AD causes. This concept is a take on an inventory valuation method used in accounting.
In cases when the patient still lives in the family home, interactions might start to become limited to basic personal care, as the family is not sure how to engage. These factors lead to the biggest complaints from people who are living with dementia: feelings of loneliness and boredom.
Bathing can be a challenge because people living with Alzheimer's may be uncomfortable receiving assistance with such an intimate activity. They may also have depth perception problems that make it scary to step into water. They may not perceive a need to bathe or may find it a cold, uncomfortable experience.