Senile insanity: signs, treatment and care of the sick. Senile insanity - causes, symptoms, treatment Senile insanity what to do

Dementia most often develops in old and old age.

Therefore, for those who care about the elderly, it is important to know the symptoms and treatment of senile insanity: this will help them notice the manifestations of the disease in time.

Eliminating dementia is not always possible, but the sooner treatment begins, the easier it will be to maintain the patient's intelligence at the proper level.

How to develop memory and thinking in adults? Learn about it from ours.

What it is?

What does insanity mean and who is a senile? As a person grows older, his body wears out, and by old age in most people have a list of diagnoses seriously affecting their lives.

The activity of the brain in the elderly and senile age is also disturbed: atherosclerosis and hypertension are negatively affect the state of blood vessels, which causes chronic oxygen starvation of both the brain and other organs.

Senility- an expression common among the general population. But there is no such diagnosis.

Usually, senile dementia is meant by senile insanity. Older people with this disease are often called senile, but this is also not a medical term.

Senile (or, in other words, senile) dementia- a kind of dementia that develops after sixty years under the influence of one or more adverse factors.

It is characterized by the following signs: , loss of previously acquired skills and knowledge, impaired ability to acquire new skills and assimilate information.

The severity of symptoms depends on the severity of the disease. The likelihood of developing senile dementia increases after 65-70 years: at least 15% of people over this age have a mild form of senile dementia, and about 5% have a severe form and need continuous care.

The number of people with senile insanity will increase significantly in the coming decades.

It's connected with improving the standard of living of the population: more people will be able to live to the elderly and senile age.

Reduce chance development of dementia is possible, but it is important to start following preventive recommendations long before the onset of the age period at which the risk of occurrence is highest.

It is necessary to control diseases that can adversely affect the functioning of the brain, and regularly give yourself an intellectual load.

Reasons for the development of senile dementia

The main causes of senile insanity in men and women:

Also sickness able to develop against the background of AIDS, neurosyphilis, endocrine pathologies, renal and hepatic insufficiency, some autoimmune diseases, Pick's disease.

As a rule, senile dementia develops either against the background of Alzheimer's syndrome, or due to vascular pathologies, or a combination of both disorders. Rest negative factors are aggravating.

Symptoms

Symptoms inherent in senile dementia, and their severity may vary, depending on the severity of the disease. There are three degrees of dementia:

The severity of symptoms in vascular dementia is not as significant as in Alzheimer's syndrome.

The main symptoms of insanity in the elderly:

1. Cognitive impairment. With dementia of vascular origin, disturbances in the processes of memorization and reproduction of information come to the fore, the rest suffer less. Alzheimer's syndrome affects all cognitive skills (speech, thinking, attention, the ability to navigate in space, and so on).
2. Delusional states. Rarely observed in the early stages of the disease. The patient begins to put forward delusional statements, report his own fears (something will happen, someone will steal something), is able to show aggression or be offended if others try to convince him. Can blame others (they add something to his food, they want to take his property).
3. Apathy. Interest in cognitive activity gradually fades away, the motivation disappears in patients.
4. , irritability, changes in behavior and mood. People suffering from dementia are often observed, and they are capable of flaring up under any circumstances, even the most innocent.

   Other patients may be, on the contrary, tearful, overly sentimental.

5. and other mental disorders. Many patients have depressive symptoms (hopelessness, lethargy, loss of motivation, feeling that the future will not be good). In some cases, they may be observed.
6. . Characterized by the occurrence of frequent headaches, sleep disorders (insomnia, daytime sleepiness, superficial sleep).

The set and severity of symptoms depends on the characteristics of the disease.

Friends and relatives of the elderly it is important to notice changes in cognitive abilities(forgetfulness, absent-mindedness, a decrease in interest in what was important before, slight speech disorders) and, if necessary, insist on examinations.

What looks like a normal age deviation can turn out to be a serious pathology.

Diagnostics

Diagnosis is made on the basis of complex of symptoms characteristic of dementia, which is called "three A"):

• aphasia(problems with speech);
• agnosia(impaired perception, difficulty in recognizing faces, words);
• apraxia(difficulties in performing sequential actions).

Additional examinations are also shown: computed and magnetic resonance imaging.

Dementia is diagnosed by a psychiatrist and a neurologist.

Treatment

How to treat? Features of treatment largely depend on the disease or pathological condition against which signs of dementia appeared, and on what additional diseases are present in the patient.

Features of the treatment of dementia in:

positive effect on patient well-being psychotherapy. Also, as a rule, they should follow a specially selected diet.

Treatment of any type of dementia should always be under the supervision of doctors. At home, it is impossible to cure the patient, therefore, if signs of the disease appear, you must go to the hospital.

The doctor supervising the treatment process will give relatives recommendations for care, to which it is important to listen. The more attentive and careful relatives will treat the patient and the more carefully they will follow medical advice, the longer he will live and the more comfortable his life will be.

Before using any folk recipes, you should consult your doctor.

It is also useful for relatives to read more information on how to care for sedentary and immobile people, purchase equipment that will help the patient feel good (handrails, non-slip mats and special seats for the bathroom, medical bed, massagers, wheelchair).

It is important to discuss the feasibility of a particular purchase with your doctor.

What should relatives do?

Tips for loved ones:

Forecast and prevention

How many people live with dementia and can it be avoided?

Prevention of dementia:

The prognosis for dementia depends on the diseases against which it developed, and on the degree of neglect. If dementia is of vascular origin, and its treatment started on time, to achieve good results or at least stabilize the condition is more than realistic.

Alzheimer's disease is incurable and will gradually progress. Most people with this pathology die within the first seven years.

A clinical psychologist will talk about the difference in diseases between dementia and pseudodementia:

The phrase "senile insanity" is familiar to everyone since childhood. Fortunately, the reason for this is not a huge number of patients, but the comic use of this phrase. For many, the exclamation: "Yes, this is insanity!" - means only that something wrong is happening, not in accordance with common sense. Unfortunately, in reality, this disease is not at all like a joke, since a person suffering from it can qualitatively poison the life of himself and all the people around him. And what is especially unpleasant is that senile insanity can manifest itself at almost any age, and it is very difficult to notice its symptoms early enough.

origin of name

Not everyone understands why this disease received such a name. To make everything clear, one should turn to a dead language - to Latin. "Marasmos" is translated as "fading" and "exhaustion". The adjective denotes the age at which the problem most often occurs. Thus, senile insanity is a disease caused by the exhaustion of the mind and its gradual extinction, most often manifested in the elderly.

Causes

Any disease is easier to prevent than to treat. Therefore, it is necessary to know why it may arise. Unbalanced diet, smoking, alcoholism, low physical and mental activity - all these factors provoke the death of brain neurons, which causes senile insanity.

Symptoms

The earlier a disease is detected, the easier it is to treat. That is why it is so important to be able to recognize the first alarming bells and not leave them unattended. So, you can not sit back when the following symptoms appear:

1. Exaggeration of character traits. The prudent and thrifty turns into a miser, cautious - into a coward.

2. Short-term memory is impaired - the patient may forget what he did yesterday.

3. The character is changing for the worse, in a person his worst features are clearly manifested.

4. The patient loses the adequacy of behavior and assessment of life situations, orientation in time is disturbed, the mind fades.

5. A person does not want to communicate with other people, society burdens him.

6. Conservatism - the patient believes that everything was good only before, suffers from nostalgia, refuses any changes.

Severity

A disease such as senile insanity has several stages. The first - the easiest - is manifested only by a decrease in social activity and unwillingness to communicate, as well as a loss of interest in the world and favorite activities. The stage of moderate dementia is characterized by the loss of most skills. The patient can "unlearn" to open doors, cook, turn on the TV. He becomes a heavy burden for his family. Well, if the patient is completely dependent on others, is not able to eat and maintain hygiene on his own, then this is already a severe and irreversible senile insanity.

Treatment

Unfortunately, many people think that this problem is irreparable. In fact, getting rid of it is possible. The main thing is to start treatment on time. So, senile insanity recedes when taking vitamin B12, following the right diet, gradually increasing the load on the body and mind. The doctor may also prescribe anti-dementia and psychotropic drugs. A change of scenery can also have a good effect.

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 has gone outside. 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.

Senile insanity (disintegration of personality) is one of the most severe types of disorders, over time leading to the loss of opportunities for any contact with the environment. This factor is due to mental changes that occur during the irreversible atrophic process of the brain.

Senile insanity: symptoms, diagnosis and main causes of the disease

Mental disorders leading to the development of insanity are represented by a huge group of various diseases that occur in old age, but all of them are united by a number of common features. In the brain, pathological changes are caused by internal causes (possibly hereditary predisposition), and external influences play an aggravating or provoking role. Most often, senile insanity in the initial stages is hardly noticeable to others. The course of the disease is slow, chronic, irreversible, with a constant increase in characteristic symptoms.

The main clinical symptom of insanity is the development of dementia in a person. Initially, it can be expressed in minor changes in intelligence.

Diagnosis of diseases that are caused by atrophic processes in the brain is carried out based on the results of an objective examination and patient interview data. Additional research methods include computer and electroencephalography.

Senile insanity can develop for various reasons, but the main ones are considered to be atherosclerosis of the vessels and mental atrophic disorders of the brain. According to statistics, this disease occurs more often in women than in men. Senile insanity can begin to appear at the age of 70-78 and last for about 5-8 years.

Senile insanity in the initial stages is manifested in some personality changes, such as pronounced egocentrism, grumpy-evil mood, stinginess, some false memories can also be noted and even appear, etc. Such changes over time become noticeable to most of the people around such a sick person.

Senile insanity: treatment and further prognosis of the course of the disease

The possibilities of drug exposure are extremely limited. In some cases, patients are not even able to carry out self-care, so one of the main places is occupied by supervision and care for them. As a result of memory disorders and disinhibition of drives, they become dangerous both for others and for themselves. It is advisable to leave the patient at home and provide him, of course, with appropriate care, because the need to get used to the hospital (new) environment can contribute to a significant deterioration in the condition.

The patient should be pushed to maximum activity during the day, this will prevent loss of appetite, the development of pulmonary pathology and limited joints, the appearance of bedsores. The course of the disease can be positively affected by timely treatment of vascular disorders. Vitamin therapy is shown.

Nootropic drugs can have a positive effect only in the first stages of this disease. In the fight against insomnia, a clear daily regimen should be observed: frequent walks, constant employment, a special attitude to the daytime sleep regimen. At night, it is possible to use diazepam, nitrazepam, which have a hypnotic effect, in small doses. In small doses, antipsychotics may also be indicated, but this is only if the patient has observed or severe fussiness.

The prognosis will depend on the speed with which the process of personality decay occurs, as well as on the presence of other concomitant diseases. It should be understood that the term "senile insanity" implies disability, incapacity and insanity of a person.