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The Effects of Alzheimer's Disease

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The Effects of Alzheimer's Disease
The Effects of Alzheimer’s disease, Symptoms, Behaviors, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatments, and Future Outlook
Wanda W. Jones
Webster University

Literature Review Alzheimer’s disease is the decline of mental function and the most common form of dementia (Parsa, 2011). Dementia is a term used to describe multiple areas of functions that have progressive declines, such as “decline in memory, reasoning, communication skills, and the ability to carry out daily activities” (Banerjee, 2012, p. 706). Banerjee (2012) further explains that in conjunction with those declines, and at any point of the disease, individuals with dementias could develop symptoms of behavioral and psychological troubles such as “depression, psychosis, aggression, and wandering, causing problems in themselves, [and] complicate care” (p. 706).
In 1907, Alzheimer’s disease was named after a German neuropathologist named Alois Alzheimer, who first described the neuropathological features of this progressive disease that includes intellectual function loss and memory deterioration (Solmaz & Tastan, 2012, p. 289). The disease follows the path of “progressive deterioration comprised of gradual destruction of memory, judgment, language, reasons in addition to behavioral alterations” (Parsa, 2011, p. 100).
The major dementias include “Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, mixtures of these two pathologies (mixed dementia) and rarer types such as Lewy body dementia, dementia in Parkinson’s disease and frontotemoporal dementia” (Banerjee, 2012, p. 706). Terms used by the public to describe dementia includes “’Alzheimer’s’, ‘dementia’, ‘senile’ and ‘crazy’”, with euphemisms “’senior moment’, ‘old timer’s disease’” and ‘slow thinking’ (Laditka S. B., et al., 2013, p. 369). Primarily, ‘Alzheimer’s disease’ is the term used to describe all types of dementia (Banerjee, 2012). According to The Alzheimer’s Association (2013), approximately 60-80% dementia cases are classified as Alzheimer’s



References: Baker, B. (2011, March). The Issues. CQ Researcher, 21(9), 195-202. Banerjee, S. (2012, October 2). The macroeconomics of Dementia-Will the world economy get Alzheimer 's Disease? Archives of Medical Research 43, 705-709. doi:10.1016/j.arcmed.2012.10.006 Block, M., L, C., Elder, A., Bilbo, S Goldman, B. (2012, Fall). Alzheimer 's risk. Stanford Medicine, 29(3), 3-3. Goldstein, F. C., Levey, A. I., & Steenland, N. K. (2013, January). High blood pressure and cognitice decline in mild cognitive impairment. Journal of American Geriatrics Society, 61(1), 67-73. doi:10.1111/jgs.12067 Hurd, M Kaiser, J. (2012). Advocates win 'Exceptional ' boost for Alzheimer 's research. Science, 335(6071), 902-902. Kerwin, D., & Claus, T. (2011, February). Severe Alzheimer 's Disease: Treatment effects on function and care requirements. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 12(2), 99-104. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2010.06.011 Laditka, J Mayeux, R. (2010, June). Early Alzheimer 's Disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(23), 2194-2201. doi:10.1056/NEJMcp0910236 Morley, J Palma, J.-A., Urrestarazu, E., & lriarte, J. (2013, March). Sleep loss as risk factor for neurologic disorders: A review. Sleep Medicine, 14(3), 229-236. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2012.11.019 Parsa, N Philpotts, J. (2010, September/October). Report shows women affected by Alzheimer 's disease. Bifocal, 32(1), 5-5. Solmaz, Y., & Tastan, H. (2012). Molecular Basis of Alzheimer Desease. Gazi University Journal of Science, 25(2), 289-299. The Alzheimer 's Association. (2013). 2013 Alzheimer 's disease facts and figures. Alzheimer 's & Dementia, 9, 208-245. doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2013.02.003 Tse, M

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