My 88 year old mother has obvious signs of dementia but has never been diagnosed as such. She had an MRI recently, but it did not indicate anything abnormal (the reason for the MRI was to find the cause of her dizziness). The symptoms do not seem to be as bizarre as some of the Alzheimer symptoms, but her memory and confusion is rapidly getting worse.
Jam
The National Institutes of Health's Senior Health resource guide has a good article on Alzheimer's Disease, its diagnosis, and treatment. Here's the section on symptoms and diagnosis: http://nihseniorhealth.gov/alzheimersdisease/symptomsanddiagnosis/01.html The last page of this section has a video on diagnostic techniques. For more indepth information, including research, see the NIH Medlineplus articles at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/dementia.html
I hope this information is helpful to you and your family!
---Jess
I think of dementia as an umbrella that all seniors are under and each of the spokes represent the different aspects or diseases of dementia.
There are several diseases - NOT just Alzheimer's - within dementia: Lewy Body(LBD), FrontoTemporal(FTD) or Picks's Disease, Vascular Dementia. And each of these have similar and yet different aspects. And then there's the overall aging of the brain causing "senior moments" that happen to all of us as we age.
There are simple tests to see where the person is on the dementia scale: in addition to those mentioned above there is the clock drawing test, the MMSE, Folstein test. These plus a MRI or scan can give the physician a baseline of where a patient is at. The MRI/brain scan can look at brain shrinkage and where which is useful. All of these should get repeated pretty regularly to be able to evaluate whether a particular set of med's are working.
My mom has LBD and is mid-90's. LBD tends to be more episodic. For her, the antianxiety / depression med's seemed to work well without the dementia drugs until just the last 6 months. As the episodes got closer and closer and she had more false beliefs and paranoia to the point it was controlling her. Her doctor put her on the Excelon patch and continued the Remeron. Now she is much more even and relaxed. The dementia is still there but it doesn't control her constantly.
She is mid-stage dementia but it comes and goes for LBD. Her roommate is also mid-stage but is Alzheimers and is on the Aricept and Namenda combo.
Most MD's are not trained for dealing with dementia. You should try to get her to see a gerontologist who will become her primary doc and they can refer her to the neurologist, psych. or others needed for her care. Good luck.
Leroy
All good input from the others.
When my mother-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer in 1993, there weren't so many tests (or meds) being done. There are some basic tests you can do to give you an idea of were she's at so you have a little more info to help the docs, or that the doctor may do initially. They are simple cognitive function things like having the patient draw a clock, the "old fashioned" numbered type, asking them the current day, month, year, who the president is, word recall - tell them a few words, nouns, and after you ask them another question or two, ask them to repeat the words you gave them to remember.
These are only basic screening items these days, but was all they really had to go on back in the day. That and our observations of her. Sadly it was Alzhiemer's in her case. A lot of humor and accepting her for the person she was at any given point in time got us ALL through several years of progression and allowed us to enjoy our time together and build positive memories for us and our children.
God bless you both!
Mary
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