Senile insanity - symptoms and treatment. Senile insanity, dementia, what to do, how to prevent the onset of insanity

Senile dementia is a disease that can appear in a person at an advanced age. In the people, dementia has a name. A disease develops as a result of atrophic processes that occur in the brain.

In old age, most people in all organs and systems begin to experience irreversible processes, malfunctions. Mental activity is also disturbed, deviations in this area are divided into emotional, behavioral and cognitive. Dementia is associated with many disorders, but is closely associated with cognitive impairment. Simply put, against this background, patients have reduced emotionality, frequent unreasonable depressions appear, and gradually the personality begins to degrade.

Manifestations of dementia

When does dementia start to appear? Symptoms are usually found in old age. The disease affects such psychological processes as memory, speech, attention, thinking. Already at the earliest stages of the onset of vascular dementia, disorders manifest themselves quite significantly, which cannot but affect the quality of life. A person begins to forget about the acquired skills, and he simply cannot master new ones. Such patients are forced to leave the professional field, they need constant care of the household.

Stages of development of the disease

Senile dementia begins to appear gradually. Mental activity worsens, the patient loses his individual characteristics that were inherent in him. If the disease progresses, then it takes a total form.

Initially, others may not even notice that an elderly person suffers from senile dementia. Personal changes come gradually. Negative character traits can be perceived by relatives as features of old age. An elderly person may show conservatism in conversation, stinginess, selfishness, a desire to teach others. After all, this may not always mean that senile dementia has come. What to do around and close? Carefully observe the intellectual state of your elderly relatives. With the development of the disease, thought processes and attention deteriorate. The patient begins to summarize information poorly, draw conclusions, adequately analyze the situation.

Gradually, the personality becomes coarsened, senile features appear: callousness, stinginess, anger, interests narrow, views turn into stereotyped ones. It also happens that the patient becomes self-satisfied and completely careless, he loses moral skills, does not adhere to moral standards. With peculiarities in sexual desire, some kind of sexual perversions may even arise.

As for the memory of the sick, incredible things happen here. A person often forgets what happened to him yesterday, but clearly remembers the pictures of the distant past. Therefore, many suffering from senile dementia live in the past, remember themselves as young, consider themselves young, call those around them by names from the past, and often go somewhere on the road.

External forms of behavior often do not change, gestures remain the same, familiar, characteristic of this person, he uses expressions inherent in him. Therefore, relatives do not notice that an elderly person develops senile dementia, treatment, they believe, is not required.

Three degrees of disease

Depending on the social adaptation of the individual, there are three pronounced degrees of the disease.

1. Mild dementia. Professional skills are degraded, the patient's social activity decreases, interest in entertainment and favorite activities weakens. At the same time, orientation in the surrounding space is not lost, a person independently provides for his life activity.
2. The average or moderate degree of dementia does not allow leaving the patient without additional supervision. At this stage, the ability to use household appliances is lost. Often a person is not able to independently open even the door lock. In common parlance, this degree of severity is referred to as "senile insanity." In everyday life, patients need constant help, but from the point of view of personal hygiene, they completely serve themselves.
3. Severe degree. Senile dementia can lead to complete maladjustment and degradation of the personality. The disease at this stage is characterized by the fact that the patient needs constant care, he cannot take care of himself. Relatives have to dress him, feed him, wash him, and so on.

Forms of dementia

There are two main forms of senile dementia - lacunar (partial or dysmnestic) and total.

With lacunar dementia, there are serious deviations in short-term memory, while emotional changes (sensitivity, tearfulness) are not pronounced.

Total senile dementia, the symptoms of which are more pronounced, has a complex form. Criticism in a person is sharply reduced, reactions are lost, personality is leveled. Personal degradation occurs, emotional-volitional activity changes radically. A person loses a sense of duty, shame, and at the same time loses spiritual and life values.

Types of senile dementia

Depending on what signs of senile dementia appear, experts divide the disease into several types:

Partial dementia. In this case, memory disorders, emotional state are pronounced. There is increased weakness, fatigue. The mood is mostly low.

Epileptic dementia. This type develops gradually, it does not appear immediately. A person is prone to fine details of events, to revenge, becomes vindictive and pedantic. The person's horizons are reduced, most often speech becomes poor. Often the main symptoms of epilepsy appear.

Schizophrenic dementia. With this type of dementia, it is better to hospitalize the patient immediately in order to prevent a complete change in personality. The signs of the state are complete isolation, emotional coldness, loss of connection with the outside world, decrease in activity, isolation from reality.

Medical classification of types of dementia

• Dementia of the atrophic type. These include Pick's disease and Alzheimer's. Often, diseases occur against the background of initial degenerative reactions that occur in the cells of the central nervous system.
• Vascular dementia (hypertension, atherosclerosis). The disease develops due to pathologies that have arisen in the vascular system of the brain and blood circulation.
• mixed dementia. The mechanism of occurrence is similar to both vascular and atrophic dementias.

Who can get the disease

Why does senile dementia appear? Doctors still cannot name the causes of the disease. Many agree that hereditary predisposition plays an important role in the appearance of the disease. This theory is confirmed by the presence of cases of "familial dementia". Atrophic processes of the brain play an important role, which can progress under the influence of certain factors. After a severe stroke, senile dementia may occur. Symptoms (treatment requires a long time) constantly accompany the disease.

It happens that dementia can develop after pathologies that lead to the death of brain cells, due to trauma to the skull, tumors in the brain, with multiple sclerosis, and alcoholism.

Older people who lead an active, healthy lifestyle, both mentally and physically, are much less likely to experience this disease. Often, senile dementia manifests itself in those who are more often in a depressed mood, have weak immunity, poor living conditions for life.

Senile dementia: symptoms, treatment

For any type of dementia relevant signs:

• Emotional-volitional. Manifested in causeless aggression, apathy, tearfulness.
• Intelligent. Violated attention, thinking, speech, up to the collapse of the personality.

Often, a doctor diagnoses dementia when cognitive dysfunction occurs after a stroke or heart attack. A harbinger of the development of the disease can be considered weakened attention. The patient begins to complain that he cannot clearly concentrate his attention on anything, concentrate.

The characteristic symptoms include a shaky, mincing gait, changes in the timbre of the voice, articulation. Sometimes there is swallowing dysfunction. Slowed intellectual processes can also serve as an alarm signal, a person slowly analyzes the information received, finds it difficult to organize his activities. Over time, physical signs appear: muscles weaken, pupils narrow, hands tremble, the skin becomes very dry, and sometimes the functions of internal organs are disturbed. As the disease progresses, hallucinations and delusions appear.

This is how senile dementia manifests itself. How many people live with this disease? This question is of interest to many. The answer to it cannot be unambiguous. Dementia is not a cause of death. Sometimes any manifestations of the disease (inattention, loss of orientation) can lead an elderly person to an accident.

When diagnosing dementia, the doctor conducts testing, during which the patient is given tasks that he must complete in a certain time.

Vascular dementia

When it comes to vascular dementia, it is worth noting that memory deviations do not manifest themselves so significantly. But the emotional state requires increased attention. All patients are subject to constant mood swings. Laughing to tears, they can immediately sob bitterly. Very often they are visited by hallucinations, they show apathy to everything that surrounds them. Sometimes they suffer from epileptic seizures. With vascular dementia, motor activity, gestures, and facial expressions are impaired. There are urinary disorders. Such patients are characterized by slovenliness, indifference to personal hygiene.

Senile dementia: treatment, drugs

In the therapeutic treatment of dementia, there are no template, standard methods. Each case is individual and is considered by the doctor separately. This is due to the huge mass of pathogenic mechanisms that preceded the disease. It is worth noting that it is completely impossible to cure dementia, the disorders caused by brain damage are irreversible.

What drugs are most often used for senile dementia? Neuroprotectors are used for treatment, they have a positive effect on the brain, improving tissue metabolism. An important role in therapy is played by the direct treatment of precisely those diseases that led to dementia.

In cognitive processes, calcium antagonists are used, these include cerebrolysin, as well as nootropic drugs. If the patient has prolonged depression, the doctor prescribes antidepressants. To avoid cerebral infarction, it is recommended to take anticoagulants and antiplatelet agents.

Particular attention should be paid to a healthy lifestyle. In old age, it is simply necessary to completely abandon alcohol and smoking, too salty and fatty foods. It is recommended to spend more time outdoors, to move.

Medications are mainly used to relieve certain symptoms. Psychotropic drugs are prescribed for periodic anxiety, sleep disorders, manifestations of delirium, hallucinations. The doctor tries to prescribe drugs that do not cause side effects, including weakness.

At an early stage, nootropics, as well as metabolic drugs, help to stop the progression of the disease, slow down the pathological process. The treatment regimen can only be determined by the attending physician. Means are selected strictly individually, templates are unacceptable here.

Disease prevention

Medical statistics state that about 35.5 million people suffer from senile dementia. At the same time, doctors give disappointing forecasts. Can dementia be prevented? In some cases, the newest drug "Brain Booster" will help prevent the development of the disease. This dietary supplement fills the diet with the necessary amount of useful substances, macro- and microelements, vitamins. Satisfies all the needs of the body in the right substances. The drug is necessary for the effective prevention of senile dementia, it also helps to normalize the activity of cerebral vessels in the initial stages of the disease.

The drug "Brain Booster" has been tested in practice by traditional medicine. To create it, the necessary plant components were used. The drug stimulates processes in the brain, improves blood circulation, cleanses blood vessels. Allows you to cope with depressive conditions, improves memory, makes a person more efficient and focused.

Not a single person wants to eventually acquire senile dementia, live with this disease, create unbearable conditions for their loved ones to live together. It is necessary to start the prevention of the disease when you are still in your right mind and understand the need and importance of preventive measures.

Treatment and prevention of folk remedies

In order to stop, correct the development of senile dementia, you can use folk remedies.

• In the treatment of atherosclerosis, take decoctions, tinctures of hawthorn fruits, anise lofant, Caucasian Dioscorea.
• Consistently take B vitamins, folic acid. Eat fresh blueberries, make decoctions from dried berries in winter.
• In the initial stages of the disease, tincture on the root of elecampane will help. Drops should be taken 3-4 times a day before meals.
• Mild signs of dementia are well corrected by Gingko biloba extract. The drug can be bought at any pharmacy.

It should be noted that those suffering from dementia are most often sloppy. They require constant care. If relatives cannot cope with this, then it is better to hire a professional nurse or send the patient to a specialized institution - a boarding school, where patients with senile dementia are monitored. How many live with this disease? With advanced vascular dementia, according to doctors, life expectancy is about five years.

All older people are encouraged to lead an active, healthy lifestyle. Walk more, breathe fresh air. Do not become sour, do not fall into depressive states, develop your mind and intellect, and then with a high probability the disease will bypass you.

Senile dementia is dementia that comes with age, characterized by the degradation of thinking, memory, behavior. Dementia in the elderly leads to a persistent decline in cognitive performance and the ability to care for oneself. There are different types of dementia, they will be discussed in the article.

Senile dementia: what is this disease

Presenile dementia is a whole group of dementia states progressing in the presenile years associated with atrophy of brain cells.

The most common forms of the disease are:

• Alzheimer's and Pick's diseases;
• Parkinson;
• chorea of ​​Huntington.

Senile dementia in psychiatrists means the progressive degenerative fading of neurons, most often seen after the age of 80. Violated mental functions, memory, lost: willpower, accumulated knowledge, routine skills.

This group includes senile insanity and age-related loss of cognitive functions. Unlike congenital dementia, incurable oligophrenia, senile dementia is classified as an acquired mental degradation of mature individuals.

Stages of development and life expectancy

The stages of dementia proceed slowly, the deterioration of the condition develops gradually.

Are noted:

• initial stage;
• moderate;
• final.

The early stage is very similar to the personality shifts of natural aging. Rare episodes of forgetfulness are noted, mental abilities are reduced. Some character traits: pedantry, stinginess, are aggravated, self-criticism is still preserved.

Moderate dementia of the brain is characterized by increasing intellectual impairment. Personality is destroyed, individual characteristics are leveled, behavior becomes the same type.

Memory lapses deepen, habitual skills are lost. The patient becomes sloppy, indifferent to his appearance and favorite activities. Elementary hygiene habits are still preserved. But the patient is able to injure himself by accident. Relatives should not leave a person unattended.

The prognosis of life expectancy depends on the severity of the course of the final stage of dementia. How many years do people live after being diagnosed with presenile dementia? From 6 to 14 years and more. With senile - up to 10, 15 years.

In recent years, the patient has experienced profound amnesia and speech disorders. He forgets his name, skills, achievements. Treatment at home consists of full care and constant maintenance, including nutrition and hygiene.

It's important to know! An elderly patient needs the constant presence of a nurse or relatives. He can light a fire, flood an apartment, break expensive dishes, cut himself with fragments. Take care of your loved ones!

What to do with relatives

When a patient with such a diagnosis appears in the family, relatives should treat him with increased attention. While only minor symptoms and signs are noted, a person combs his hair on his own, but forgets where the comb is, you need to tell him. If the patient is shown, reminded of how the usual action is done, he is still able to repeat the movement and take care of himself on his own.

Relatives should understand that when the patient can no longer take care of himself, the condition worsens. What to do when urinary incontinence starts? We need to hire a nurse, someone to take care of the sick. The patient will need diapers for adults, a diaper on the bed if a severe stage of the pathology has come.

In extreme cases, a person is placed in a specialized medical facility. In case of severe dementia in the elderly, here they will be fed, washed, combed, and provided with full care.

Attention! A patient with advanced dementia may become aggressive, pugnacious, intolerant of criticism. No need to be offended by the person. He is not responsible for himself at this time. Relatives must be patient and loving. Forgive and understand.

Types of senile insanity

Senile insanity is not a mandatory sign of aging. Active longevity today captures the masses. At the age of 70-80, people live an interesting, eventful life, go in for sports, communicate in social networks, joke, laugh, look at life positively.

However, often the character, memory deteriorates in elderly people, anger and irritability appear. Some relatives, noticing apathy, forgetfulness, untidiness in a loved one, attribute this to natural aging and do not go to doctors.

As a result, brain atrophy occurs too quickly, the behavior of a degraded individual turns the life of the whole family into a real hell.

Vascular dementia

Vascular or vascular dementia occurs from a violation of blood circulation in the brain. If some cells do not get enough nutrition and oxygen, they begin to wither and eventually die.

Until a certain age, the body retains the ability to regenerate and restore neurons. But, if exhaustion already sets in, cell atrophy is inevitable. Then symptoms become noticeable, thinking, memory, speech, behavior are disturbed. The individual loses independence, becomes dependent on outside help.

Vascular dementia syndrome can appear unexpectedly, as a result of blockage of the blood vessel of the head by a blood clot or a large air plug. If the vessel breaks, many neurons die from the blood pouring into the brain. Also, slow dementia occurs from blockage of small vessels of the brain. This pathology can only be detected by MRI.

Heart failure, a decrease in blood flow from blockage of blood vessels with bad cholesterol plaques also become an impetus for the onset of neuronal atrophy.

Due to the differences in the causes of vascular dementia, there is no single way to treat this pathology. However, prevention and treatment affect the healing and cleansing of blood vessels. The disturbed blood flow in large arteries and capillaries is restored. Doctors strive to normalize the pressure, to a value of 120/80. So that neurons do not experience oxygen starvation.

Frontotemporal dementia

Frontotemporal or frontotemporal dementia is a disease when the withering of the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain is even more pronounced than in Alzheimer's and Pick's disease. The death of gray matter cells is summed up with the accumulation of Pick bodies in them. In some cells, neurofibrillary fibers from tau protein are found.

Pathology is characterized by rapidly developing apathy, weakening of physical and psychological activity. Speech disorders progress, the grasping and sucking reflex disappears. A little later, disinhibition of behavior and euphoria begins. Treat, as in Alzheimer's syndrome, symptomatically, but not very effectively.

Alcoholic dementia

Severe disorders of the central nervous system, disruption of normal activity are always the result of addiction, endless drinking. An eternally drunk person loses adequate thinking, perception, counting, speech, attention, memory.

The patient must be shown to a psychiatrist - narcologist. The doctor will assess the degree of degradation of mental abilities with the help of tests and questionnaires, prescribe treatment.

Dementia in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenic dementia of the brain is characterized to a greater extent by emotional disturbances. Acquired knowledge and skills initially practically do not suffer, intelligence is preserved. However, patients cannot use knowledge.

Schizophrenia is a chronic disease. Therefore, if it is possible to stop the course of the disease itself, then the symptoms of dementia disappear. In other cases, an extremely unfavorable prognosis is possible.

Along with the growing apathy, slovenliness, speech and social disorders, delirium and hallucinations occur. But for life, the prognosis is positive, with successful treatment, restoration of working capacity is also possible.

Dementia of the Alzheimer's type

Dementia and Alzheimer's disease are synonyms. Pathology of this type is characterized by a primary degenerative phenomenon in the activity of brain cells. Without early and adequate treatment, this dementia completely destroys the personality and brings death closer.

The first signs of Alzheimer's dementia are a slight weakening of memory, indifference to your favorite business. There is no known cure for this type of dementia. But many scientists are working on its development. Israeli doctors noted positive changes in new works.

However, drugs are known that slow down the deposition of pathological plaques and the development of winding fibers in the gray matter. An active life position significantly lengthens the life expectancy of patients. Constant exercise for the body and brain creates new neural circuits, makes the brain work and resist atrophy.

The last stage of dementia leads to personality degradation, memory loss, and complete helplessness. It occurs at the most respectable age, 10-15 years after the discovery of pathology. A person at this time needs care and attention.

Dementia after a stroke

Sudden destruction of blood vessels in the brain - a stroke, leads to partial paralysis of the lower or upper limbs, their weakening, paralysis of one side of the body can occur. Subject has a sideways smile and is unable to move his tongue normally. After a stroke, walking is impaired. The man shuffles his feet, holds himself unsteadily, as if drunk.

A person has increased drowsiness, apathy, memories of recent events disappear. In a stroke, different parts of the brain atrophy. Depending on what function this portion of gray matter is responsible for, a loss of skills, thinking, and awareness of the surrounding reality is manifested.

In almost all patients, the regularity of urination is disturbed. Emotional disturbances, an incomprehensible, helpless state, lead the patient to depression and pessimistic behavior.

Proper treatment and restoration of good blood supply brings the patient closer to a slow but sure recovery of cognitive functions, memory and mood of the patient. Patients live after the detection of vascular dementia up to 5 years or more.

Multi-infarct dementia

The loss of cognitive functions that appeared after many consecutive strokes was called multi-infarct dementia. Its manifestation depends on the extent of the affected area of ​​gray matter. It is noticed that dementia is more often manifested after damage to the left hemisphere.

After numerous ruptures of blood vessels, degradation increases in steps. Strokes occur more often against the background of high blood pressure, diabetes, atherosclerosis. Several burst vessels can lead to death and complete paralysis. Normal blood circulation should be restored first of all, if the person does not die.

digital dementia

The pathology of the new generation is called digital dementia. Pupils and students, constantly relying on their gadgets, calculators, have forgotten how to count in our time.

In South Korea, where electronic devices are ubiquitous, there has been a loss of intelligence and mental disintegration of the personality in a large part of the population.

Such dementia is treated with mathematical exercises, mental counting, solving puzzles and puzzles. In old age, digital dementia occurs in those who do not bother to solve problems, equations, do not teach lessons with children and grandchildren.

epileptic dementia

Epilepsy is a chronic disease. It proceeds with periodic convulsive attacks and loss of consciousness. Depending on the length and depth of the attacks, there is a gradual atrophy of neurons and degradation of the personality.

Patients with high intelligence rarely suffer from dementia. Congenital epilepsy is incurable, post-traumatic is treated. In any case, anticonvulsants lengthen the time between seizures and make them easier. Signs of dementia disappear, memory and all skills return.

Dementia in Parkinson's disease

Trembling paralysis is a disease associated with the death of neurons and the connections between them in the subcortical region of the brain. The cause of parkinsonism is vascular disease, the use of neuroleptic drugs, anti-asthma drugs, traumatic brain injuries, and infections. Family tremors similar to this type have also been noted.

In half the cases, parkinsonism does not provoke dementia. But sometimes this happens, and often there is a craving for suicide. Because a constant tremor is perceived by others as inadequacy. The person is very worried about this. Memory impairments start later.

Parkinsonism is treated with Cyclodol, Parkopan, Midantan and other means. The symptoms of dementia disappear with the healing of the tremor.

Lacunar dementia

Amnestic or lacunar vascular dementia occurs after a limited stroke. Usually it is localized in different parts of the brain. The severity of dementia depends on what function the affected area of ​​neurons controls.

Vascular treatment often leads to a complete restoration of motor functions and intelligence. Recovery is very slow.

Causes of the disease

Senile sclerosis, indifference to one's appearance, loss of skills and speech occur in old age, not only from respectable years. Progressive dementia is more common after age 80. The reason may be the unlimited use of alcohol or strong coffee.

Alcohol is a known dementia provocateur. Coffee increases blood pressure, which leads to stroke, the development of vascular dementia.

Congenital and post-traumatic epilepsy, if you do not take anticonvulsants and do not adhere to the regime, drinking strong drinks, leads to dementia and death.

Causes of digital dementia - excessive passion for the calculator. Thinking is useful.

Acquired dementia more often affects people who, after graduating from high school, do not read books, do not solve crossword puzzles, do not attend theaters, do not force their gray cells to work.

A small percentage of diseases are related to genetic causes and infectious. It is noticed that the herpes virus is able to kill neurons.

Organic dementia is of the primary type. It arises from the mass death of neurons, the cause of which is vascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, Pick. Age-related dementia in almost 90% of cases occurs for this reason.

The remaining 10% are related to secondary dementia. The reasons in this case are:

• a cancerous tumor in the head;
• brain infection (meningitis);
• metabolic disorders;
• thyroid disease;
• brain injury.

Symptoms of dementia

The symptoms of dementia in the elderly refer to the general changes that result from the destruction of the brain, under the influence of a number of diseases. More often these symptoms occur after 65 years, but experts do not consider dementia the norm for old age.

Age-related dementia is manifested by memory impairment, loss of routine skills, indifference to those items that used to be expensive. Inability to navigate the terrain, unwillingness to learn new things. The patient can no longer adequately analyze what is happening, compare, confuse bitter and sweet. An elderly person begins to think like a small child. No wonder there is an expression: falls into childhood.

Symptoms of dementia in older people are often accompanied by depression. A person feels lonely, useless in such a helpless state. Vulnerability, hypersensitivity and resentment are easily replaced by aggressiveness and crying.

Symptoms of dementia in old age are sometimes accompanied by hallucinations and delusions, complete degradation of the personality, and shifts in the psyche. For example, sleep disturbance, appetite is accompanied by a persistent desire to put a mug in one place. Such a patient categorically does not want to be rearranged.

Diagnosis of acquired dementia

To know how to treat senile dementia, it is necessary to undergo a comprehensive examination. In the early stage of pathology, the patient himself does not always notice changes in his behavior. Loving and attentive relatives, noticing that a person has become slow, confuses words and events, is closed, unreasonably rude, will take him to the doctor.

Disability in dementia and treatment are prescribed by a neurologist, therapist, ophthalmologist. In the laboratory, blood is examined:

• for sugar;
• lipids;
• electrolytes;
• creatinine;
• liver tests;
• thyroid hormones;
• the content of trace elements;
• syphilis;

The following hardware tests are carried out:

• dopplerography of blood vessels;
• gene test;

Dementia treatment

Neurologists and psychiatrists know how to treat senile dementia. Secondary dementia caused by metabolic disorders, infectious diseases, schizophrenia, epilepsy, head trauma is curable. When the symptoms of the disease that causes dementia pass, the signs of dementia also disappear.

Primary dementia is incurable. But all drugs, nutrition, diet and exercise prolong a person's life, improve the quality of life.

Preparations

Cure for dementia:

• Donepezil;
• Galantomin;
• Rivastigmine;
• Memantine.

These drugs are taken daily. Periodic courses are prescribed neuroprotectors:

• Semax;
• citicoline;
• Cerebrolysin;
• Glycine;
• Cortexin.

• tranquilizers;
• antidepressants;
• sleeping pills.

Folk methods

Researchers at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine found that a compound found in grapes prevents age-related memory impairment. Restveratrol is good for the cardiovascular system. It has a positive effect on the hippocampus, an area of ​​the brain associated with mood and learning, and helps with Alzheimer's disease. This medicine is an antioxidant that reduces the risk of neck and head cancer.

Therefore, grapes and some red wine are good for those suffering from dementia. With such a diagnosis, they live for a very long time if they use folk remedies to maintain life and restore cognitive functions.

Symptoms and treatment of senile insanity are well known to folk healers.

They advise taking:

• tincture of elecampane. Insist a large spoonful of roots on 500 ml of vodka for a whole month. Take a soup spoon three times a day half an hour before meals, shaking beforehand;
• blueberries. A glass of freshly squeezed juice or compote per day restores blood microcirculation in the head, restores vision and memory;
• honey and onion mixture. Mix the puree of the grated onion in equal amounts with honey. Twice a day, a tablespoon of the remedy reduces forgetfulness;
• ginger tea with mint and lemon balm. Thirty grams of ginger cubes and a few mint leaves boil with boiling water. Drink tea several times a day. Normalizes brain function and strengthens the immune system.

Nutrition, diet

Symptoms, treatment and how long people live with senile dementia largely depend on proper nutrition and diet.

Food should be chosen according to your needs. For example, with high blood pressure, you should not drink strong coffee and even strong black tea, so as not to provoke another stroke.

Epileptics are contraindicated in alcoholic beverages and strong coffee, then the attacks become less frequent and shorter.

If the vessels of the head are clogged with cholesterol plaques, it is necessary to exclude fatty and fried foods from the diet. Eat less flour and confectionery products.

Signs of dementia in women depend on the hormonal background. The menu should include food that normalizes the necessary trace elements. Then the memory and bones will be stronger, the heart will beat rhythmically.

Fruits and vegetables, lean meats, cereals, olive oil are good for all older people. Ginseng tincture and juices will give strength, strengthen muscles.

Exercises

How to avoid senile dementia without exercise? Feasible training is necessary not only for the body, but also for your gray cells. Doctors have noticed that dancing classes, the need to memorize complex movements, have a positive effect on a person’s memory and brain function.

It has long been known that a difficult sport improves the quality of intelligence.

How to prevent dementia or slow its progress while lying on the couch? No way! An active life position, a keen interest in new information, learning unfamiliar languages, solving math problems, maintaining a personal blog, and chatting in Odnoklassniki will make life more fun.

New connections formed in the brain, thanks to exercise, make gray matter cells work. Thus, a person is able to overcome dementia and prolong his active longevity.

Expanding one's horizons by walking in unfamiliar parks, reading interesting adventure books is useful for improving the quality and length of life of an elderly person.

Prevention

Prevention of senile dementia is to maintain a healthy lifestyle and an optimistic attitude, diverse, lively interests.

If you spend your whole life on drinking and fighting, with inevitable head injuries, it is difficult to assume that in old age a person will have a bright mind and high intelligence. Many drunkards do not even live to old age.

Those who are keenly interested in the latest in fashion, study healing herbs, philosophical teachings, practice yoga, science, remain able to take care of themselves until late in life. A person who goes in for sports, collects paintings, attends fashion exhibitions, does not suffer from senile insanity.

Question answer

Is dementia hereditary?

Numerous studies show that dementia is inherited only in very rare cases. It is about 15% of the patients.

Difference between dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Dementia can result from Alzheimer's disease or another disease such as Pick's. Dementia is not a separate disease, but something that atrophy of neurons that has arisen for one reason or another can lead to.

Difference between dementia and Pick's disease

Personality degradation in a patient with Pick's disease follows a slightly different scenario than with Alzheimer's syndrome. Neurons in both cases are affected differently.

Dementia is a consequence of atrophy of the frontal and temporal parts of the brain in Pick's disease. But dementia is not a separate pathology that should be compared with another.

Unfortunately, aging is inevitable.

Some diseases of the elderly leave them in a state where they are unable to live independently and take care of themselves. These include senile dementia.

The whole burden of problems falls on the relatives of the patient.

It is especially difficult when the disease enters a late stage, a person becomes dangerous for himself and others.

Dementia (dementia) is the loss by a person of previously acquired skills and abilities, the impossibility of acquiring new ones. The disease is a consequence of disorders of the cardiovascular and nervous systems.

Statistically, every third elderly person on Earth suffers from this disease.

At the initial stage, the patient does not lose household skills, he can live independently. In the later stages, the patient becomes completely asocial: he cannot eat, wash, or dress himself.

It becomes difficult for relatives to be side by side with such a patient.

Unfortunately, the process is irreversible. Relatives will have to accept that the patient's condition will only worsen.

If relatives do not have material and housing problems, this greatly facilitates patient care. Otherwise, the situation becomes catastrophic.

What should relatives do if their loved one has been diagnosed? First of all, it is necessary to choose the right tactics of behavior and organize the life of a sick person in order to alleviate his condition and not to become depressed.

Arrangement of living space

As long as a person is able to serve himself, he can be left alone. Wherein it is necessary to provide the most comfortable and safe living conditions:

Nutrition, daily routine

The patient should always have enough food and dishes ready to eat.

A person can no longer cook food on his own, but he can warm it up in the microwave, so the food must be laid out in containers in advance so that it can be easily heated.

Cut bread, cheese, vegetables beforehand so that an elderly person does not have to use a knife. Buy unbreakable cookware.

Daily routine will help facilitate patient care. It is necessary to accustom the patient to go to bed, eat and walk at the same time..

Social adaptation

Often relatives try to limit the patient's communication with other people by locking him at home. It is not right. At the initial stage, such patients can still communicate, which helps them to postpone the difficult stage of the disease.

Sick need to walk outdoors, to engage in feasible physical education. If possible, they should attend circles, clubs for the elderly.

This has a positive effect on their psycho-emotional state, prevents insomnia.

Wandering fight

Patients with dementia are prone to wandering and vagrancy. At the same time they poorly oriented in space, forget the way home.

They can get lost or hit by a car. Interesting activities and hobbies will help prevent this.

Need warn the neighbors so that they report that the patient went out into the street. It is better to purchase a special bracelet that will signal all the movements of a person.

Way out - hire a nurse with medical education. She will feed the patient, give him time, help with hygiene procedures, and accompany him on walks.

Often patients reach such a state that they become dangerous to themselves and others. They have attacks of aggression, hallucinations, they can attack relatives.

Then the best solution would be to place the patient in a medical facility that specializes in caring for people with dementia. This will preserve the spiritual balance of relatives, prevent nervous breakdowns, depression.

How to communicate with patients

People diagnosed with dementia are very difficult to communicate with. They are capricious, offended. Often, they have a syndrome of persecution: it seems to them that others want to rob them, poison them, and take away their property.

How to deal with depression in loved ones

A constant long stay next to an inadequate person can bring anyone to depression and a nervous breakdown. To prevent this from happening relatives should follow a few recommendations:

You can not make a sick person the master of the situation. It is important to build his life according to the schedule of healthy family members. At an early stage, patients are still able to perceive what they are told.

At a later stage, when the patient is already completely insane, it is worth placing him in a hospital or boarding house. All the same, he can no longer be helped, but saving his nerves and relationships in the family is real.

Dementia is an incurable disease. The average patient is 8 years old.

To date, there are no drugs that can prevent the development of dementia.

It is not so much the patient himself who suffers from the disease, but his relatives. There are frequent cases of depression and nervous breakdowns in relatives of a patient with dementia.

Proper organization of the patient's life, his living conditions can alleviate his condition and minimize the negative manifestations of the disease.

Mental disorders leading to insanity are represented by a whole group of mental illnesses of late age, which are combined according to a number of common features. Pathological changes in the brain are due to internal causes (including hereditary predisposition), and external influences play a provocative or aggravating role.

In most cases, the onset of the disease is slow and hardly noticeable to others. The course is chronic, with a constant increase in symptoms and irreversible. A characteristic clinical symptom is the development of dementia from almost imperceptible changes in intelligence to complete dementia. The general condition of the patient with insanity is characterized by severe physical exhaustion, malnutrition of the tissues of the skin, the development of dystrophy of the internal organs, increased fragility of the bones.

Senile dementia

Senile dementia(senile dementia) is characterized by a progressive breakdown of mental activity and the development of complete dementia due to an organic disease of the brain. Women predominate among the patients. The average duration of the disease is 5 to 8 years. Senile dementia begins unnoticed by the people around the patient. In some cases, infectious diseases, surgeries, cardiac disorders, and serious mental trauma contribute to the intensification of the manifestations of the disease.

Attention is drawn to the exacerbation of personal characteristics characteristic of the patient, and (or) the presence of signs of senile personality restructuring, which is expressed in coarsening of the personality, narrowing of horizons and interests, increasing signs of egocentrism, gloom, grouchiness of the patient, a tendency to suspicion and petty conflicts. At the same time, patients often become gullible - they easily succumb to someone else's influence, even to the detriment of their own interests. The characteristic manifestations of the disease include the disinhibition of lower drives (gluttony, the desire for vagrancy, sexual perversion, picking up unnecessary things).

Gradually, patients stop using the old vocabulary, the level of judgments and conclusions is significantly reduced. At the beginning of the disease, memory impairments are not pronounced (new material is not fixed in full and is quickly forgotten), later fixative amnesia is noted. In this case, the patient becomes disoriented in time, the environment and in his own personality.

progressive decay of memory occurs in a sequence opposite to the acquisition of knowledge for the entire previous life. Adequate perception is disturbed, which is often accompanied by a symptom of “living in the past”: in others, patients see people who have already died, consider themselves schoolchildren, their children can be perceived as brothers and sisters, and brothers and sisters as parents. A characteristic manifestation of senile dementia is the so-called senile delirium, which differs from the true one in that the cause of a violation of the knowledge of reality is not hallucinations, but defects in perception and orientation.

This is often associated with the desire for pseudo-activity, when the patient's behavior is characterized by increased efficiency, which does not bring a specific result. If the initial period of the disease is characterized by gloom, depression, unwillingness to live, then later shades of complacency, euphoria, carelessness and, finally, complete indifference begin to prevail in the mood. The patient's behavior, as the signs of dementia increase, undergoes significant changes: at the stage of marasmus, patients become helpless, lie in the fetal position and lead a plant lifestyle. A distinctive feature of this disease is the fact that even in the stage of insanity there are no neurological disorders. Night sleep is often superficial and intermittent, and during the day there is marked drowsiness. Senile dementia is characterized by increased speech readiness, and in later stages - meaningless talkativeness.

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is a disease that manifests itself in advancing age.

The average duration of the disease is 8-9 years with a manifestation (bright manifestation) at the age of 50-60 years. The disease progresses rapidly and is characterized by the development of dementia and the early addition of focal symptoms. A significant place in the manifestations of the disease is given to the decay of memory: amnestic disorientation quickly sets in and a complete loss of experience gained in life. Amnestic syndrome is rarely accompanied by a revival of past experience; there is usually no senile delirium. Disturbances of perception, comprehension and attention appear early and rapidly progress. At the beginning of the disease, patients are often aware of the changes that have occurred to them; at the later stages, complacency and dull euphoria predominate.

Typical symptom of Alzheimer's disease- early development of dementia components into neurological disorders. At the same time, patients lose their usual skills and stupidly perform well-known work. Subsequently, this symptom turns into persistent apraxia.

A manifestation of Alzheimer's disease is a progressive weakness of optical attention and instability of visual attitudes to surrounding objects. Changes in the early stages are characterized by efficiency and fussiness, and then are replaced by monotonous, simple rhythmic movements. The collapse of higher cortical functions in Alzheimer's disease is accompanied by impaired speech understanding: the stage of limited understanding is replaced by total sensory aphasia. With this disease, logorrhea (irrepressible word eruption), pathological illiteracy, and word formation disorder are expressed. A large place is occupied by various automatisms (forms of violent speech). Pseudo-stuttering is often encountered, when there is a varying degree of impairment: from the initial stumbling on the first letters or syllables to the constant repetition of sounds or "fragments" of words.

Violations of written speech usually appear in the early stages of the disease and often precede the decay of oral speech. Psychotic disorders personalities are common and can be represented by paranoid states, psychotic episodes of scattered delusional ideas of damage, poisoning or persecution, auditory and visual hallucinations, states of confusion, mental and motor excitations due to the acceleration of the atrophic process in the brain. In Alzheimer's disease, epileptic seizures are also recorded, which usually occur in the later stages of the disease (seizures are more often single). A frequent symptom of the disease is subcortical disorders: stiffness in movement, isolated gait disorders, choreoid and myoclonic hyperkinesis. At the last stage of the disease, against the background of the complete collapse of mental activity and the patient's complete helplessness, a sharp increase in muscle tone with a forced fetal position, cachexia in bulimia, endocrine disorders, violent grimaces of crying and laughter, oral and grasping automatisms are observed. An electroencephalogram shows widespread disturbances in the electrical activity of the brain and other characteristic changes.

Pick's disease

The disease refers to systemic atrophies with the preferred presence of atrophic changes in certain brain systems, characterized by the gradual development of complete dementia, impaired higher cortical functions and neurological disorders. With this disease, the main localization of the process is distinguished in certain lobes or areas of the cerebral cortex and arbitrary. This disease occurs 4 times less often than Alzheimer's disease. Pick's disease is most often recorded at the age of 55-56 years, and after 60 years it is much less common. The female to male ratio is 1.7:1 respectively. Slow onset is characteristic, but acute overt manifestations of the disease are possible. A distinctive feature of Pick's disease from other atrophic diseases is the predominance of deep personality changes in the early stages, and some functions of the intellect (remembering, reproductive memory, attention, orientation, sensory cognition) and automated forms of mental activity (counting) suffer less. Personality changes depend on the localization of the pathological process. With damage to the frontal lobes, inactivity, lethargy, apathy, indifference, dulling of emotions, impoverishment of mental, speech and motor activity are noted. The defeat of the basal cortex is accompanied by a pseudo-paralytic syndrome, euphoria, impulsivity, gross violations of conceptual thinking (generalization, understanding of proverbs, etc.), patients lose their sense of tact, lower drives are disinhibited. With atrophy of the temporal lobes, stereotypes of speech, actions, and movements are revealed.

Asthenic manifestations, initial psychotic disorders, focal changes, early manifestations of memory disorders can be recorded much less frequently. In the early stages of Pick's disease, gross memory impairments are uncharacteristic, but there is a violation of complex and various types of mental activity (the ability to abstract, generalize, integrate, flexibility and productivity of thinking, criticism and the level of judgments. In the later stages of the disease, against the background of dementia, some types of of elementary orientation and the remnants of the ability to remember, pronounced oral and grasping automatisms usually do not occur.In Pick's disease, a gradual disintegration of speech occurs with complete destruction of speech functions and the development of total aphasia.Loss of speech functions begins with the formation of speech stereotypes and "unwillingness" to speak.Loss of speech functions begins with the formation of speech stereotypes and "unwillingness" to speak. areas may be manifested by impaired speech.Writing disorders are characterized by a "stereotyping of writing."Psychiatric disorders in Pick's disease are rare and can be represented by paranoid syndromes, paranoid and hallucinatory-paranoid states. In some patients, states of relaxation of the muscles are recorded without a complete shutdown of consciousness. With a frequency of 25-30%, organic neurological disorders develop in the form of a parkinson-like syndrome and extrapyramidal hyperkinesis. In the last stages, the patient's condition with Pick's disease is characterized by complete dementia with a complete breakdown of speech, action and recognition, the development of insanity and complete helplessness. The electroencephalogram reveals smoothed "linear" curves and a general decrease in bioelectrical activity.

Huntington's chorea

Huntington's chorea is a hereditary form of an atrophic-degenerative disease of the brain. The first signs of the disease are most often recorded in middle and old age, they are manifested by common choreic hyperkinesis and other neurological disorders and are accompanied by various mental disorders.

The average age is 44-47 years, the total duration of the disease is up to 12-15 years. In most cases, the characteristic symptom complex of the disease is preceded by a period when psychopathic abnormalities can be detected in the patient: mental retardation, inferiority of motor functions (clumsiness, insufficient coordination of movements, poor handwriting, etc.). Mental disorders in Huntington's chorea can occur at different times after the appearance of involuntary movements, simultaneously with them or precede them.

Psychopathic deviations are divided into 3 types of personality anomalies: excitable (evil, explosive), hysterical (capricious, prone to demonstrative behavior), closed, emotionally cold personalities.

At the later stages of the disease, personality traits are erased, and pronounced emotional dullness with elements of a euphoric mood begins to prevail. Dementia in Huntington's chorea is characterized by the fact that with a slow course of the pathological (atrophic) process, it is not always complete. Some patients can perform their usual simple work, but are lost in an unfamiliar environment.

A characteristic feature of dementia in Huntington's chorea is a pronounced unevenness of mental performance (jump thinking). There are no obvious violations of higher cortical functions. Speech disorder in most cases is due to contraction of the speech muscles. Gradually, signs of impoverishment of speech increase, speech aspontaneity and “unwillingness” to speak develop. Psychotic disorders in the early stages of the disease are usually represented by mental disorders (unwillingness to live), delusional disorders (delusional ideas of jealousy, persecution, poisoning). In the later stages, delusional disorders occur (paralytic, ridiculous delusions of grandeur). The transition of some delusional disorders to others is possible. Hallucinatory episodes, hallucinatory-paranoid states are much less common. Neurological changes in Huntington's chorea are represented by generalized choreic hyperkinesis, which have a slow pace of choreic twitches with a small amplitude and relatively long intervals with a relatively low severity of reduced muscle tone. In most cases, Huntington's chorea leads patients to death in a state of complete dementia and insanity, and involuntary movements by this time are reduced or completely stopped.

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease develops mainly at a late age (50-60 years) and is caused by a degenerative-atrophic lesion of the extrapyramidal system of the brain. The course of the disease is chronic. The clinical picture is dominated by neurological disorders in the form of characteristic movements, hypertensive-akinetic syndrome (increased muscle tone, stiffness, poor movements, gait disturbance) and disorders of peripheral nerve centers. Mental changes are rare. The initial stage of the disease is characterized by the presence of irritability, affective instability, suspicion and importunity.

Depression can lead to a suicide attempt. In the later stages of the disease, patients have symptoms of an organic decrease in mental activity, a state of confusion, and other psychotic disorders. This period is characterized by an increase in apathy, indifference (“psycho-motor narrowing of the personality”). Severe dementia develops, the manifestations of which resemble senile dementia. In most patients suffering from Parkinson's disease, mental disorders occupy a secondary place, due to the local nature of atrophic changes.

Vessels are to blame

Old age is not at all synonymous with dementia, psychiatrists are sure. Many manage to maintain, as they say, sanity, good memory and vigor in old age.

However, one of the main problems that almost every family faces is the seemingly inadequate behavior of elderly relatives.

The fact is that representatives of the older generation suffer from mental disorders much more often than middle-aged people. What we call "falling into insanity" has a scientific explanation. Insanity is called progressive dementia with motor and autonomic disorders.

What are the causes of senile insanity?

“The body ages, and the brain ages along with it,” says psychiatrist Marina Lisnyak, candidate of medical sciences. - However, some people experience not only physiological, but also pathological aging, which is accompanied by mental disorders. In psychiatry, several groups of disorders are described, which are called involutional psychoses. There is involutional depression, paranoia - delusional disorders, when it seems to a person that he is being persecuted, conspiracies are weaving. There may be a decrease in intelligence, memory - unfortunately, this is not uncommon. Often, people independently expose an elderly person to a diagnosis - "senile insanity", "insane". But the degree of sanity is determined only by the examination and the court.

People who are faced with the strange behavior of relatives complain about the same signs. Old people begin to hide money, food, suspect others, complain about hunger and bullying by children. (Of course, we do not consider egregious cases where the elderly are victims of relatives.)

- If you notice any typical signs, we are talking about a mental disorder. Hiding bread under the mattress causes the fear of impoverishment, hunger, perhaps this is just involutionary paranoia. But the final diagnosis, of course, is made only by doctors. One of the causes of such disorders is vascular pathology. Atherosclerosis of the cerebral vessels is now extremely common, and there is no tendency to reduce the number of cases. The disease comes on gradually. Neuroses, anxiety can develop, mood decreases, while the intellect and memory do not suffer yet. Now the diagnosis of "atherosclerosis" is also made in thirty-year-old patients.

- Hypertensive patients are at risk, - says Marina Anatolyevna, - Our diet also affects the increase in the number of cases - we eat more animal food and less coarse fiber. Cholesterol builds up in the body. Therefore, it is necessary to include in the diet as much coarse dietary fiber as possible, they are also found in dietary supplements. But you need to do this regularly.

“It has already been proven that in old age all character traits become aggravated,” says Marina Anatolyevna. - If a person was harsh, he can become aggressive, if stingy - pathologically greedy. Additional features may appear that were not previously observed. For example, malice. Perhaps this is a defensive reaction. There is still a lot of energy, but there is no strength and means to apply it, people thus splash out despair.

Only a specialist can determine where organic changes are, and where are just whims. Although for many years of living together, relatives learn to understand the mood and characteristics of an old person. Sometimes "goofing" can be caused by quite understandable reasons. A fairly common and very justified reason for deep resentment and irritability of old people is that they were used and abandoned as unnecessary. And such situations are not uncommon. As long as health allowed, people raised their grandchildren, pulled grown-up children with all their might, and often even supported young families. As they get older, they are no longer needed. All reproaches and even aggressive attacks are perceived by young relatives as insanity. In such cases, older people can get hung up on one episode - "I sold the dacha for you (I left work, I exchanged an apartment)."

Huge stress and sometimes irreversible consequences in the elderly causes the death of relatives and friends. It is hard when peers leave life one by one, it is even harder to bury your own children and spouses.

Another reason for inappropriate behavior can be a regular overdose of drugs. Elderly people often use various drugs in large quantities. Sometimes they are incompatible with each other, often they are not needed at all. Moreover, at this age, drugs are absorbed longer and worse, so the side effect may be unexpected.

All this can often provoke an obsessive fear (accident, hooligans, exposure through a socket), a desire for constant control over everything, a demand for increased attention to oneself.

Memory for many years

— It is necessary to find your circle of interests — cottage, needlework, social work, — says Marina Lisnyak. - This will help to cope with depression, worries and anxieties.

By the way, young people are mistakenly convinced that the first sign of old age is grumbling and complaints.

“Nothing like that,” Marina Anatolyevna is sure. “I know a huge number of young people who grumble and complain just as much. It's just that they have the opportunity to change something, to act, and the aged person only has to talk about his unfulfilled desires. Help him, if there is even the slightest possibility.

However, sometimes the relatives of the sick need no less help. There are many cases when old people literally exhaust even exemplary children and grandchildren with their demands and nit-picking.

“Situations are quite common when elderly people suddenly begin to accuse and reproach their relatives for non-existent reasons,” says Marina Lisnyak. - And they do it publicly, involving neighbors and acquaintances in the discussion. No need to get angry and offended, thereby you are harming yourself. Explain the situation to friends and relatives - they will understand. But neighbors need to be invited to the house more often for various reasons, communicate with them more, then they will see for themselves that everything is fine in your family.

prepared by Nadezhda Frolova

What to do?

- Get involved: in the "game", even if at first it irritates you. “I don’t even have a cracker in the house, they’ve completely exhausted me,” an eighty-year-old grandmother complained to her neighbors. The granddaughter, who lives with her, was offended to tears - how is it, because everything seems to be enough. But there really are no crackers, because granny simply has nothing to chew on, and she prefers sweets with tea. Granddaughter bought three packs of different crackers at once. For several months now, they have been presented to my grandmother for the first “lamentation”.

If an old person requires you, for example, to immediately close the windows, “because someone is climbing into them,” just close it without entering into an argument.

- Keep relatives up to date with the latest news. But writing TV is also not enough. Initiate older people, especially women, into innocent, well-known "gossip". The world of an aged person is no longer so full of events and news. Therefore, regularly with a mysterious face tell your grandmother that "this one sold the apartment and got divorced", "they robbed the neighbors' cottage." If the grandmother will groan all day over the antics of a neighbor, this will temporarily save you from offensive nit-picking.

- Make gifts for all memorable dates and holidays. Even if a person already seems to have everything and, as it seems, nothing else is needed. Patok, a bag, a wall calendar, a small receiver, something tasty - you may stumble upon dissatisfied grumbling and accusations of squandering, nevertheless you will deliver pleasant minutes to your loved one.

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