Dementia Awareness
Unit 4222-237 Dementia awareness.
1.3. Depression, delirium and age related memory impairment may be mistaken for dementia as they all share the many of the same symptoms as dementia. Below I will put the symptoms of all of these and you will see they are very similar.
Symptoms of depression:
-Anxiety, irritability, Delusions
-Hallucinations
-Increased or decreased body movements
-Pacing, wringing their hands, pulling or rubbing their hair, body, or clothing
-Sleep disturbance: difficulty getting to sleep, staying asleep or especially waking up early
-Changes in appetite: usually loss of appetite but sometimes increased appetite
-Weight loss or occasionally weight gain
-Fatigue, decreased energy
-Difficulty concentrating, thinking or making decisions
-Slowed speech, slowed responses with pauses before answering, decreased amounts of speech, low or monotonous tones of voice
Symptoms of delirium:
-Reduced awareness of the environment, this may result in:
-An inability to stay focused on a topic or to change topics
-Wandering attention Getting stuck on an idea rather than responding to questions or conversation
-Being easily distracted by unimportant things
-Being withdrawn, with little or no activity or little response to the environment
-Poor thinking skills (cognitive impairment) This may appear as:
-Poor memory, particularly of recent events
-Disorientation, or not knowing where one is, who one is or what time of day it is
-Difficulty speaking or recalling words
-Rambling or nonsense speech
-Difficulty understanding speech
-Difficulty reading or writing
Behaviour changes
Seeing things that don't exist (hallucinations)
Restlessness, agitation, irritability or combative behavior
Disturbed sleep habits
Extreme emotions, such as fear, anxiety, anger or depression
Age-related memory impairment
-Forgetting where you left things you use regularly, such as glasses or keys.
-Forgetting names of acquaintances or blocking one memory
1.3. Depression, delirium and age related memory impairment may be mistaken for dementia as they all share the many of the same symptoms as dementia. Below I will put the symptoms of all of these and you will see they are very similar.
Symptoms of depression:
-Anxiety, irritability, Delusions
-Hallucinations
-Increased or decreased body movements
-Pacing, wringing their hands, pulling or rubbing their hair, body, or clothing
-Sleep disturbance: difficulty getting to sleep, staying asleep or especially waking up early
-Changes in appetite: usually loss of appetite but sometimes increased appetite
-Weight loss or occasionally weight gain
-Fatigue, decreased energy
-Difficulty concentrating, thinking or making decisions
-Slowed speech, slowed responses with pauses before answering, decreased amounts of speech, low or monotonous tones of voice
Symptoms of delirium:
-Reduced awareness of the environment, this may result in:
-An inability to stay focused on a topic or to change topics
-Wandering attention Getting stuck on an idea rather than responding to questions or conversation
-Being easily distracted by unimportant things
-Being withdrawn, with little or no activity or little response to the environment
-Poor thinking skills (cognitive impairment) This may appear as:
-Poor memory, particularly of recent events
-Disorientation, or not knowing where one is, who one is or what time of day it is
-Difficulty speaking or recalling words
-Rambling or nonsense speech
-Difficulty understanding speech
-Difficulty reading or writing
Behaviour changes
Seeing things that don't exist (hallucinations)
Restlessness, agitation, irritability or combative behavior
Disturbed sleep habits
Extreme emotions, such as fear, anxiety, anger or depression
Age-related memory impairment
-Forgetting where you left things you use regularly, such as glasses or keys.
-Forgetting names of acquaintances or blocking one memory