What can be done about senile dementia?

Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
Updated on September 01, 2024
00:00
00:00

Once a patient is diagnosed with dementia, it is crucial to promptly visit a hospital for treatment. The doctor will conduct some auxiliary examinations based on the patient's medical history to rule out other diseases.

If the diagnosis confirms dementia, firstly, family members must pay attention to care. The living abilities of patients with dementia decline significantly, and they may experience wandering, thus enhancing caregiving to prevent any accidents in the elderly;

Secondly, it is essential to encourage the patient to engage in physical activities. Exercise can slow down the progression of aging and delay the further deterioration of dementia;

Thirdly, it is vital to enhance communication for the patient, encouraging them to converse more with others, as interaction can slow down the progression of dementia;

Fourthly, some specific medications should be administered for treatment. These drugs mainly include acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and NMDA receptor antagonists, which current research confirms can alleviate certain symptoms of dementia.

Other Voices

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Guan Yu Hua
Orthopedic Surgery
1min 20sec home-news-image

Is spinal bifida prone to dementia?

Spina bifida is a common congenital malformation caused by incomplete closure of the vertebral canal during embryonic development. If the spina bifida is occult, it does not affect anything and does not cause dementia. If it is overt spina bifida, it can be diagnosed through physical examination, and confirmed with radiographic examination, CT, or MRI. Typically, the patient has a swelling along the midline of the back, which grows as they age. The cystic tension increases when the child cries, and may be accompanied by varying degrees of flaccid paralysis of the lower limbs and incontinence. Occult spina bifida generally has no symptoms and does not require intervention. However, overt spina bifida is best treated surgically, or if the occult spina bifida is accompanied by spinal cord tethering, then surgical treatment is recommended as it would be for all cases of overt spina bifida. In cases where the cyst wall is very thin and ruptured, emergency surgery is necessary and can be curative. For other cases, surgery within one to three months is optimal to prevent aggravation of the condition due to cyst rupture. Generally, adult patients with stable conditions in recent years may not need surgery.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
1min 7sec home-news-image

What can be done about senile dementia?

Once a patient is diagnosed with dementia, it is crucial to promptly visit a hospital for treatment. The doctor will conduct some auxiliary examinations based on the patient's medical history to rule out other diseases. If the diagnosis confirms dementia, firstly, family members must pay attention to care. The living abilities of patients with dementia decline significantly, and they may experience wandering, thus enhancing caregiving to prevent any accidents in the elderly; Secondly, it is essential to encourage the patient to engage in physical activities. Exercise can slow down the progression of aging and delay the further deterioration of dementia; Thirdly, it is vital to enhance communication for the patient, encouraging them to converse more with others, as interaction can slow down the progression of dementia; Fourthly, some specific medications should be administered for treatment. These drugs mainly include acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and NMDA receptor antagonists, which current research confirms can alleviate certain symptoms of dementia.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
54sec home-news-image

Alzheimer's disease is also called dementia.

Alzheimer's disease, also known as dementia in the elderly, was first identified abroad and thus named after the discoverer, Alzheimer. It is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in neurology, with a very high incidence among people over 65 in China and worldwide. The disease mainly affects patients' cognitive functions. Initially, patients do not meet the criteria for dementia and primarily exhibit a decline in memory. As the disease progresses, the decline in memory worsens, and patients begin to forget both recent and past events. Additionally, they may experience impairments in visuospatial abilities, judgment, comprehension, and learning capabilities. In the later stages, psychiatric symptoms and personality changes may appear, such as visual hallucinations, shouting, and gesturing wildly, among various other clinical manifestations.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
59sec home-news-image

precursors of senile dementia

The diagnosis of senile dementia must first meet the diagnostic criteria for dementia, primarily characterized by impairment in multiple cognitive areas such as memory, language skills, executive function, and computational ability, and these impairments affect daily life; this is called senile dementia. Before dementia occurs, there are some precursory signs, mainly slight declines in memory. For example, patients might occasionally forget to bring keys when going out, or forget to turn off the stove while cooking. These mild memory impairments are some of the precursors to senile dementia. Additionally, there is a decline in learning ability, including the symptoms of learning new knowledge and mastering new skills; these declines are also precursors to senile dementia. Therefore, the precursors of senile dementia can primarily be summarized as a slight decline in memory function and some slight decline in learning ability.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
57sec home-news-image

How is dementia diagnosed in the elderly?

Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative disease of the nervous system. The diagnosis of this disease mainly relies on the clinical manifestations of the patient, as well as some corresponding scales and some corresponding imaging examinations. In terms of examinations, it is necessary to check some neurofunctional scales, mainly cognitive function scales, common scales include some MMSE scales, and some MoCA scales. These scales are very important for diagnosing this disease. In addition, some imaging examinations need to be improved, mainly including cranial magnetic resonance imaging examinations. Cranial MRI can reveal atrophy in the patient's temporal lobe, hippocampus, and other areas, which also have an important reference value for the diagnosis of the disease. Moreover, an electroencephalogram can be performed to see some mild abnormalities, and lumbar puncture tests can also reveal some abnormally increased protein deposits.