Published on the Technorati site

How to Detect Early Stage Dementia

Author: Nellisa Noordijk
Published: April 19, 2011 at 10:11 pm

Most forms of dementia occur later in life, and since the average age of the western man or woman has increased dramatically, this disease is becoming more prevalent in our society. Dementia is debilitating and requires intensive nursing in the later stages, which can be very expensive.
As there is no cure, the best thing to do is to make the patient feel as comfortable and happy as possible. It is always best that the disease be diagnosed early, which allows family members, colleagues, friends or partners, to react and care for the patient properly.
It’s quite difficult to detect dementia in the early stages because the changes in the brain are subtle. Even an MRI - magnetic resource imaging-is not conclusive. Most patients with a neurodegenerative disorder like dementia, show atrophy of the brain, but not all. A diagnosis can’t be based on a MRI alone, but only in combination with other behavioral warning signs.
One of those behavioral warning signs, according to study researcher Katherine Rankin, a neuropsychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, is the inability to differentiate sarcasm and lies from the truth. People with dementia, who have damage to the part of the frontal lobe that is responsible for that judgment, have the most difficulty differentiating.
Behavioral changes, including hoarding, depression, sudden gullibility and fear/anxiety can be signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, but also of other mental or biological diseases. Always visit your doctor to be sure that you receive the proper diagnosis the treatment.

Article first published as How to Detect Early Stage Dementia on Technorati.