James Scotney, Town and Country Law director, is a Fellow of the Institute of Paralegals with personal experience of dementia after a family member was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This article will take a closer look at dementia, exploring common forms and symptoms.
Rather than being confined to one specific illness, ‘dementia’ is a term that describes a collection of symptoms that affect memory, behaviour, language and problem-solving capabilities. These symptoms are caused by various diseases that damage the brain. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.
Common early dementia symptoms include:
- Memory loss, impacting the individual’s ability to recall things that happened recently
- Language and communication problems impairing their ability to follow a conversation or find the right words to express themselves
- Lack of concentration and impaired organisational and planning skills
- Confusion regarding places and times
- Impaired depth perception
- Mood changes and difficulties controlling emotions
Dementia is a progressive illness that affects memory, as well as resulting in behavioural changes, confusion and difficulties completing everyday tasks. Dementia can also trigger problems with language and comprehension. Symptoms tend to be mild to begin with, worsening over time.
Diseases that cause dementia damage nerve cells within the brain that relay messages from one region to another. As more and more brain cells become damaged by diseases like Alzheimer’s, this affects the brain in a range of different ways, triggering various symptoms.
In the UK today, approximately 900,000 people are affected by dementia, which mainly affects individuals aged 65 or over. The likelihood of developing dementia increases sharply with age, with 1 in 14 individuals aged over 65 affected by the condition, rising to 1 in 6 among those aged 80 or older.
19 out of 20 people suffering dementia are affected by the four main types, which are:
- Alzheimer’s disease. For people with Alzheimer’s disease, common issues include problems with thinking, memory, perception and language.
- Vascular dementia. Early signs of vascular dementia include problems organising, planning, making decisions and solving problems.
- Dementia with Lewy bodies. Caused by Lewy body disease, dementia with Lewy bodies causes problems with movement and sleep, as well as difficulties maintaining focus, triggering delusions in some cases.
- Frontotemporal dementia. The fourth most common form of dementia, frontotemporal dementia, is also known as Pick’s disease and causes a range of different symptoms, including difficulties with language and personality and behavioural changes.
With some forms of dementia, an individual may struggle to differentiate between what is real and what is not. They may suffer delusions or hallucinations. However, it is important to understand that symptoms such as memory issues do not always stem from dementia, with functional cognitive decline, alcohol-related brain damage and mild cognitive impairment also culminating in memory problems.
In late-stage dementia, the individual typically starts to need help with eating and drinking, using the toilet, and washing and dressing. As the disease progresses, they may start to behave in ways that others have difficulty understanding, which can be one of the most challenging aspects of the disease, both for the individual themselves and the people around them.
Different dementia types affect people in different ways, particularly in the early stages. In addition, each experience of dementia will vary according to the individual, even among those diagnosed with the same dementia type.
All types of dementia are progressive, meaning that they get worse over time. However, how quickly the patient’s cognitive function deteriorates can vary significantly from one person to the next. Each individual experiences dementia in their own way. In addition to dementia type, factors that can impact this include their physical make-up, emotional resilience and the support system that surrounds them.
