Alzheimer’s Disease: Definition, Stages, Diagnosis

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Table of Contents

Definition
Stages of the disease
Case analysis
Diagnosis
Recommendations
Reference

Definition

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, and it is a condition in which the brain stops appropriately performing its functions.

The first time that the disease was described was in 1907. This was by a German psychiatrist and neurologist, Alois Alzheimer, hence the name Alzheimer’s disease.

Dementia is a clinical syndrome characterized by a progressive decline in two or more cognitive domains, including memory, language, executive and visuospatial function, personality, and behavior. Alzheimer’s impairs the ability to perform daily tasks.

Stages of the disease

Pre-dementia is the initial stage of Alzheimer’s disease, characterized by symptoms like difficulty in remembering names, losing objects.

Early dementia is associated with short-term memory becoming visible. At the same time, a person perfectly remembers events from his youth, any learned facts, applies old skills. Many patients also develop apraxia, agnosia, and speech disorder.

Moderate dementia manifests itself in the loss of the ability to independent living. As a result, a person ceases to perform daily tasks: eating, hygiene procedures, and changing clothes. Memory disorders continue to progress; the patient does not remember and does not recognize even close people. At this stage, the patient becomes psycho-related.

Severe dementia is the last stage of the disease and turns a person into a helpless invalid. It is characterized by incoherent speech, extreme apathy, and loss of control over physical and physiological processes.

Case analysis

The patient with the name R has reached the age of 71. He developed Alzheimer’s disease due to diseases inherent in older people.

R was a senior accountant at an international law firm. Since his duties included calculating all the services and costs of the company, his workload was spending a lot of time sitting at the computer in one position per day. Due to the severity of the patient’s condition, it is impossible to transfer his abilities, and, unfortunately, he will not be able to find a suitable job.

The characteristic features of Alzheimer’s disease are visible in his behavior. The patient cannot eat independently, monitor hygiene, and change clothes.

The patient cannot eat independently, monitor hygiene, and change clothes. He has memory problems; he cannot even remember people close to him and his relatives.

The patient is able to move with the help of special equipment or other people. Also, he hardly manages to solve the simplest tasks and remember what happened to him recently. R can write and read, but also not without difficulties.

Diagnosis

Cognitive impairments can be represented by impaired memory, attention, orientation, visuospatial functions, speech, gnosis, praxis, and thinking. Structurally, they can be associated with the dysfunction of each of the brain’s three main structural and functional blocks.

The defeat of the formations that structure the first block, the middle and intermediate brain structures, primarily affects the activation processes that ensure the inclusion of individual brain structures.

Disorders of speech, praxis, gnosis, and primary memory disorders that occur when this block is affected are functional disorders.

The formation of plans and goals of mental activity, the regulation, and control of individual actions and behavior when disrupted are cognitive impairments called regulatory disorders.

As a result, mainly neurodynamic disorders develop, including attention disorders, secondary memory disorders, and psychomotor retardation.

Nevertheless, psychiatry disorder is a symbiosis of emotional-personal and psychotic disorders.

Recommendations

Based on the patient’s condition, it is necessary to prescribe substitution (compensatory) therapy, protective therapy, psychopharmacotherapy, physical therapy, and household exercises.

Additionally, it is essential to ask R if he is aware that he is ill. Moreover, questions about his attitude towards his personal mental and physical abilities are required. My rehabilitation goals are to restore and preserve the patient’s memory and cognitive functions of the brain and improve the psychological state.

Tips for the care partner:

Safety first: Is there an immediate safety risk for the patient

Help patient avoid unnecessary stress.

Create a help signal for when patient is comfortable needing support or in distress.

Reference

Stages of Alzheimer’s. (2022). Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia, Web.

Weller, J., & Budson, A. (2018). Current understanding of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and treatment. F1000Research, 7, 1161. Web.

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