Lewy Body Dementia Essay

Dementia with Lewy Bodies: (Or DLB.) Lewy bodies are clusters of alpha-synuclein. If they develop in the cortex, dementia can occur.

Dementia is a term used to describe a collection of signs and symptoms that happen to the brain when it is affected by the progression of certain diseases such as vascular dementia (when brain cells die due to lack of oxygen) and Alzheimer’s disease (a specific brain disease). Some of the affects these diseases have are on a person’s memory, language and communication abilities, behaviour and ability to make rational judgements.

The person may become confused when handling money and undergo personality changes, appearing to no longer care about those around them. Swings are common and the person may become tearful for no apparent reason, or become convinced that someone is trying to harm them.In advanced cases people may also adopt unsettling behaviour like getting up in the middle of the night or wander off and become lost. Some people lose their inhibitions and sense of what is acceptable behaviour, undress in public or make inappropriate sexual advances. The person may become incontinent, have difficulty eating and drinking and may become completely dependent on others.2. Symptoms usually develop suddenly and progress in a step like way where a sudden worsening is followed by a period of stabilisation. Common symptoms include poor concentration and difficulties with communication. memory loss may also lead to confusion.As vascular dementia does not affect all of the brain, the individual may be able to retain more of their abilities and memory loss may not appear until later in the progression of the disease. This means that the individual may be more aware of their deteriorating health and may therefore be more at risk of depression.3. Dementia with Lewy Bodies is a

Doctors administer a variety of strategies to diagnose dementia (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke). It is extremely important that all treatable conditions first be ruled out, such as depression and Vitamin B12 deficiency, which can cause the same type of symptoms as dementia (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke). Timely and accurate diagnosis of dementia is extremely important for both the patient and their families because it allows early treatment of symptoms (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke). A variety of tests are used to aid in the diagnosis process, such as neurological evaluations, in which doctors look specifically at patients’ balance, sensory responses, reflexes, and various other functions (National

Dementia describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. These changes are often small to start with, but for someone with dementia they have become severe enough to affect daily life.

Alzheimer's disease is one of the most common causes of dementia. The term 'dementia' describes a set of symptoms, which can include memory loss, changes in mood and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when certain diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, damage the brain. Alzheimer's disease could be described as a physical disease affecting the brain. During the course of the disease, protein 'plaques' and 'tangles' develop

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a form of dementia that shares characteristics with both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. It accounts for around ten per cent of all cases of dementia in older people and tends to be under-diagnosed. Dementia with Lewy bodies is sometimes referred to by other names, including Lewy body dementia, Lewy body variant of Alzheimer’s disease diffuse Lewy body disease, cortical Lewy body disease and senile dementia of Lewy body type. All these terms refer to the same disorder. This factsheet outlines the symptoms of DLB, how it is diagnose and how it is treated.

Lewy bodies develop gradually and gets more severe over the years, symptoms include memory loss, visual hallucinations, delusions, muscle stiffness. 3.3 Outline the risk factor's for the most common causes of dementia The risk factor's for Alzeheimers is age, family history and genes Vascular dementia is increasing age, history of heart attacks, strokes or mini strokes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes Lewy bodies is advanced age, it appears to affect more men than women, having a family member who's had it and a unhealthy lifestyle 3.4 Identify prevalence rates for different types of dementia The established prevalence rates for different types of dementia are 40-64yrs 1 in 1400 65-69yrs 1 in 100 70-79yrs 1 in 25 80+ 1 in 6 4. Understand factors relating to an individuals experience of dementia 4.1 Describe how different individuals may experience living with dementia depending on age, type of dementia, and level of ability and disability Depending on the form of dementia people's ability and disability will be different. People with

Dementia with lewy bodies (DLB) symptoms include: memory loss, low attention span,visual hallucinations,periods of mental confusion,delusions, difficulty planning ahead, muscle stiffness, slower movement, shaking and trembling of arms and legs, shuffling while walking, problems sleeping and loss of facial expression. risk factors include: age (60+) , sex, family history of DLB.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a type of dementia that shares symptoms with both Alzheimer 's disease and Parkinson 's disease. It may account for around 10 per cent of all cases of dementia (Alzheimer’s Society, 2016). Lewy refers to the inflammation or neuro-inflammation of the brain (Surendranathan et al, 2015). Both Parkinson 's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies are age-related diseases, although onset before age 65 years is not uncommon and both diseases are more common in men than in women (Walker et al, 2015).

Dementia symptoms most commonly observed by people would be memory loss and an inability to complete simple mental activities such as adding or subtracting or remembering where things were placed, or a difference in a person’s normal behavior. There are times that a person without dementia will experience similar symptoms but, the difference is if these symptoms persist and do not go away after a period of time. Dementia isn’t something that happens quickly it is an illness that gets progressively worse as time passes. When a person that is effected with these symptoms

Dementia is a type of disorder that affects the central nervous system. It’s not a disease itself but a group of symptoms that characterize disease and conditions. It’s commonly defined as a decline in intellectual functioning that is severe enough to interfere with the ability to perform routine activities. It causes significant loss of intellectual abilities, such as memory capacity, severe enough to interfere with social or occupational functioning. Dementia‘s a general term that also includes specific disorders like vascular dementia as well as others.

Lewy body dementia (LBD) is a common form of progressive dementia that affects approximately 1.4 million Americans today which makes it the second most prevalent form of dementia behind Alzheimer’s. LBD is formed when lewy body proteins grow in the area of the brain that controls thinking, memory and motor movement. Generally, there are two types of brain diseases that are affected by lewy bodies; Parkinson’s disease with dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. Discovered by famous neurologist Frederic Lewy, lewy body dementia can affect a person’s ability to perform daily task, cause mood changes and sometimes leads to brain tumors and strokes. Lewy bodies are made up of tiny, microscopic proteins called alpha- synuclein. Typically, these

Parkinson disease (PD), also referred to as Parkinson’s disease and paralysis agitans, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is the third most common neurologic disorder of older adults. It is a debilitating disease affecting motor ability and is characterized by four cardinal symptoms: tremor rigidity, bradykinesia or kinesis (slow movement/no movement), and postural instability. Most people have primary, or idiopathic, disease. A few patients have secondary parkinsonian symptoms from conditions such as brain tumors and certain anti-psychotic drugs.

Dementia is a progressive diagnosis that takes place over months or years. Dementia occurs in stops compared to other psychological diagnoses in the elderly and age is a major risk factor. The older the adult the increased risk of dementia occurring. There are different forms of dementia, but Alzheimers is the most prevalent of all the types. Dementia, as stated above, is associated with delirium during an acute illness and is hard to identify in patients with underlying dementia. Dementia causes a decline in executive fncitoning and memory, as a result, decreasing the patient's overall quality of life because their activities of daily living become more and more limited. Behaviors and changes in mood are also noted in these patients, such as;