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Ency. home > Disease > A > Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease   

Overview | Symptoms | Treatment | Prevention

Alternative names:

Senile dementia/Alzheimer's type (SDAT)

Symptoms

In the early stages the symptoms may be very subtle. Symptoms may often include:

  • Repeating statements frequently
  • Frequently misplacing items
  • Trouble finding names for familiar objects
  • Getting lost on familiar routes
  • Personality changes
  • Becoming passive and losing interest in things previously enjoyed

Some tasks that the person usually does well can become difficult at this stage. Examples of these are balancing a checkbook, playing complex games such as Bridge, and learning new and complex information or routines.

In a more advanced stage the deficits are more obvious. Some of the symptoms are:

  • A decrease in knowledge of recent events
  • Forgetting events in their life history, essentially losing awareness of who they are
  • Problems choosing proper clothing
  • Hallucinations, arguments, striking out and violent behavior
  • Delusions, depression, agitation

Some tasks that are likely to present difficulty for a person at this stage are: preparing meals, driving, dressing, travel outside of familiar routes, managing finances.

In severe AD, a person can no longer survive without assistance. Most people in this stage no longer understand language, they no longer recognize family members, and they can no longer perform basic activities of daily living such as eating, dressing, and bathing.

Signs and Tests

The first step in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease is to establish that dementia is present. Second, the type of dementia should be clarified. A healthcare provider will take a history, do a physical exam (including a neurological exam) and do a mental status examination.

Tests may be ordered to help determine if there is a treatable condition that could cause dementia or contribute to the worsening of AD. These conditions include thyroid disease, vitamin deficiency, brain tumor, drug and medication intoxication, chronic infection and severe depression.

AD usually has a characteristic pattern of symptoms and can be diagnosed by history and physical exam by an experienced clinician. Tests that are often done to evaluate or exclude other causes of dementia include Computed Tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and blood tests.

In the early stages of dementia, brain image scans may be normal. In later stages, an MRI may show a decrease in the size of the cortex of the brain or of the area of the brain responsible for memory (the hippocampus). While the scans do not confirm the diagnosis of AD, they do exclude other causes of dementia such as stroke and tumor.

Ency. home > Disease > A > Alzheimer's disease

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