Forgetfulness, wandering, difficulty making decisions… The real symptoms of dementia are sometimes difficult to distinguish without overinterpreting them.
- Dementia is a global and progressive intellectual impairment.
- It is important to be able to recognize the warning signs in order to start treatment as early as possible.
- Dementia usually affects people over the age of 65.
“VSSome people may struggle to find a word, briefly forget the name of a celebrity, or why they entered a room, explains Aaron Bonner-Jackson, neuropsychologist. [Il s’agit] typical cognitive errors, things we all do quite regularly. A common misconception is that these signs indicate that you are inevitably [en train de développer une] dementia.” But then, how can we recognize the first symptoms of dementia?
At the onset of dementia, there are common symptoms
To distinguish dementia, it must first be clearly defined. IThis is a global and progressive weakening of intelligence. According to World Health Organization (WHO), Dementia encompasses a number of diseases that affect memory, thinking, and the ability to perform everyday tasks, the most common of which is Alzheimer’s disease. Each year, nearly 10 million new cases of dementia are diagnosed worldwide, according to theNational Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). Among the factors that increase the risk of dementia, we mainly find age, dementia affecting people aged 65 and over.
There are several signs that can be warning signs of dementia. Regardless of the illness the person is suffering from, the symptoms are generally similar when dementia sets in. They need to be known without overinterpreting them, because what is important is their recurrence and the inconveniences they cause in daily life.
First of all, you should be alarmed if you get lost in a familiar place or wander around without knowing where to go on a known route.If you’re driving around your neighborhood and you’ve made this trip many times before, but suddenly things don’t seem familiar, it might be cause for concern.“, says Dr. Bonner-Jackson.
Repeated forgetfulness is a sign of dementia
Forgetting conversations is another red flag. It’s not about forgetting words, which happens to everyone, but rather completely forgetting a recent conversation, this should alert you if it’s recurrent.
“The hallmark of diseases like Alzheimer’s is a loss of short-term memory, where [les patients] do not learn and store new memories as well as before, and so they will ask the same questions over and over again, explain Dr. Bonner-Jackson. People can remember things from years ago with perfect clarity. They remember who they went to school with and their teacher’s name and what they did while they were in the military or in their first home. But it tends to be frustrating because they can’t remember what they did yesterday.”Forgetting the first name of a loved one, if this is common, can also be a sign of dementia.
Difficulty in making decisions or assimilating changes should also be cause for alarm. If, for example, the doctor changes the treatment, but the patient does not implement this change.Taking this new medicine is no longer part of their routine, they forget that they have to take it, exposed Dr. Bonner-Jackson. If someone has difficulty making decisions or seems easily confused by things they might normally handle, this may be a concerning situation.“.
Other signs to watch for include: ability to calculate, manage money (especially paying bills), changes in mood or behavior (anxiety, depression, less interest in usual interests). Finally, there are also physical symptoms such as decreased motor skills or hearing loss.
In case of doubt, whatever the symptoms noted by the patient or their loved ones, it is important to speak to their GP quickly to start treatment as soon as possible, in the event of a positive diagnosis.
