Many people like things done a certain way. But people in the early stages of dementia may exhibit strange obsessive-compulsive behaviors, such as locking doors over and over, or buying a can of corn every time they visit the store, even though they have a cupboard-full at home. OCD and dementia can go hand in hand.
Repetitive behavior is usually a sign of insecurity, since people with dementia are often looking for something comfortable and familiar - something over which they have some degree of control.
A person with Alzheimer's may do or say something over and over — like repeating a word, question or activity — or undo something that has just been finished. In most cases, he or she is probably looking for comfort, security and familiarity.
Restlessness and fidgeting
People with dementia often develop restless behaviours, such as pacing up and down, wandering out of the home and agitated fidgeting. This phase does not usually last for long. Try to: make sure the person has plenty to eat and drink.
People with dementia begin to feel lost, confused, and insecure. Attention-seeking behavior displayed by needy elderly people with dementia is their way of asking for help.
This is one of the more common types of progressive dementia. Common signs and symptoms include acting out one's dreams in sleep, seeing things that aren't there (visual hallucinations), and problems with focus and attention. Other signs include uncoordinated or slow movement, tremors, and rigidity (parkinsonism).
Ice cream has the power to immediately elicit soothing feelings at the very first taste of a single spoon-full. It erases all the negative feel- ings related to the frustration and continues to stimulate pleasure receptors in the brain with every new scoop. And dementia (here is the best part!)
Memory loss that disrupts daily life
One of the most common signs of Alzheimer's disease, especially in the early stage, is forgetting recently learned information.
Reality TV shows are also easy to follow for seniors with Alzheimer's or dementia. Shows such as American Idol, Dancing With the Stars and American Pickers don't have a running plot, making them easy forms of entertainment for everyone. Ambient videos may also interest patients with Alzheimer's.
Symptoms. As the term might suggest, people with dementia-related psychosis have the decline in thinking and problem-solving skills of dementia, as well as delusions or hallucinations of psychosis. (Delusions are more common.)
One option is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This is a type of talking therapy that is often used to treat people with OCD and has also shown to be very effective in helping people with dementia to manage symptoms related to mental health, including anxiety and depression.
Agitation (physical or verbal aggression, general emotional distress, restlessness, pacing, shredding paper or tissues and/or yelling). Delusions (firmly held belief in things that are not real). Hallucinations (seeing, hearing or feeling things that are not there).
Try to find out why they might be fixated on a certain topic. Do they want to see the person, do they want to hold the item, do they want to visit a place? Sometimes just talking about the fixation and repeating back the person's concerns can help to make them feel validated.
People with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) often have trouble controlling their behavior. They may say inappropriate things or ignore other peoples' feelings. bvFTD may affect how a person deals with everyday situations.
Memory loss that disrupts daily life: forgetting events, repeating yourself or relying on more aids to help you remember (like sticky notes or reminders). 2. Challenges in planning or solving problems: having trouble paying bills or cooking recipes you have used for years.
People with dementia often repeat words or actions, and this is because of problems with short-term memory caused by dementia. Although this can be difficult, we can respond more effectively if we take notice of the feelings and needs behind the repetition.
Watching television is not a particularly good leisure activity for people with dementia, unless the content and/or circumstances are tailored to each and every individual.
Comfort the person with verbal and physical reassurance. Distraction or redirection might also help. Giving your loved one a job such as folding laundry might help to make her feel needed and useful. People with dementia may become uncooperative and resistant to daily activities such as bathing, dressing, and eating.
The Mini-Cog test.
A third test, known as the Mini-Cog, takes 2 to 4 minutes to administer and involves asking patients to recall three words after drawing a picture of a clock. If a patient shows no difficulties recalling the words, it is inferred that he or she does not have dementia.
Introduction: The five-word test (5WT) is a serial verbal memory test with semantic cuing. It is proposed to rapidly evaluate memory of aging people and has previously shown its sensitivity and its specificity in identifying patients with AD.
One of the most common causes of death for people with dementia is pneumonia caused by an infection. A person in the later stages of dementia may have symptoms that suggest that they are close to death, but can sometimes live with these symptoms for many months.
Additional studies indicate that dehydration can accelerate cognitive decline in people with dementia [7]. Decreased water levels in cells can cause proteins to misfold and prevent the clearance of these toxic proteins, causing them to build up in the brain.
Honey and it's properties is considered one of the natural preventive therapies of both cognitive decline and dementia. It has antioxidant properties and it enhances the brain's cholinergic system and circulation.
Well, the chilling answer is YES. According to research, an unhealthy diet makes a senior like you vulnerable to the cognitive impairment brought by dementia. In fact, a well-established study about diet implicates sugar as the major culprit in increasing your risk to develop the disease.