DEMENTIA Flashcards
a syndrome resulting from acquired brain disease
characterized by a progressive decline in memory and
other cognitive domains
Dementia
What is Dementia?
due to disease of the brain, usually of a chronic or progressive nature, in which there is disturbance of multiple higher cortical functions (memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension,
calculation, learning capacity, language, and judgment)
T or F:
Dementia produces an appreciable decline in intellectual functioning, and usually some interference with personal activities of daily living
True
How can you differentiate dementia from other cog d/o?
You could differentiate dementia from other cognitive disorders because of its chronic and progressive nature
DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR DEMENTIA
● Insidious onset
● Not caused by delirium, schizophrenia, or major depression
● Acquired
● Persistent
● Affects several areas of mental function
● Severe enough to interfere with work, social activities, and relationships with others
T or F:
7th leading cause of death and one of the major
causes of disability and dependency among older people
True
Dementia prevalence in the PH
Dementia prevalence- 10.6%
○ AD: 85.5%
○ VaD: 11.7%
These are usually associated with vascular dementia but not with alzheimer’s disease
○ Hypertension
○ Diabetes
○ Dyslipidemia
○ Smoking
What is DALY?
time based measure combines years of life/loss due to
premature mortality, and years of life/loss due to time lived in states of full care health or years of healthy life/loss due to disability
represents the loss of the equivalent of 1 year of full health
1 DALY
risk factors for dementia
● Age (more common in those 65 or older)
● High blood pressure (hypertension)
● High blood sugar (diabetes)
● Being overweight or obese
● Smoking
● Drinking too much alcohol
● Being physically inactive
● Being socially isolated
● Depression
T or F
High blood pressure, diabetes, being overweight, smoking these are the ones that are not risk factors for vascular dementia but not for Alzheimer’s dementia.
False
High blood pressure, diabetes, being overweight, smoking these are the ones that ARE risk factors for vascular dementia but not for Alzheimer’s dementia.
Signs and Symptoms of Dementia
- memory failure
- disorientation
- lapses in judgement
- difficulty performing ADLs
- difficulty performing mentally challenging tasks
- misplacing things
- apathy and loss of initiative
- changes in mood
conditions that causes dementia
○ Alzheimer’s Disease
○ Vascular Pathology (e.g. multi-infarct dementia)
○ Lewy body dementia
○ Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration
○ Parkinson’s Disease
○ Huntington’s Disease
Other causes of dementia that are least common:
● Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome secondary to Chronic
Alcohol Abuse
● Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
● Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy due to repeated trauma
● Multiple Sclerosis
● Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
T or F
Alzheimer’s Disease is the most prevalent, followed by
Vascular Dementia and Mixed Dementia
True
SD: Bilateral parietal and temporal lobes
(including hippocampus)
DP: Accumulation of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles
Alzheimer’s Disease
SD: Frontal lobe degeneration and more temporal lobe atrophy than in Alzheimer’s disease
DP: Absence of plaquies; presence of tau protein (“Pick’s bodies”)
Pick’s Disease
SD: Frontal and temporal lobes; basal ganglia
DP: Protein deposits (i.e., Lewy bodies”)
Lewy Body Disease
SD: Bilateral cortical and/or subcortical atrophy
DP: Repeated blows to head; Neurofibrillary tangles and other microscopic material
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)
SD: Subcortical dementia; caudate nucleus of the basal ganglia
DP: Cell loss reducing the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine
Parkinson’s disease
SD: Subcortical dementia; caudate nucleus of the basal ganglia
DP: Inherited atrophy of the caudate
Huntington’s disease
SD: Any location
DP: Arteriosclerotic reductions of blood supply
Vascular Dementia
SD: Medial temporal areas extending into orbitofrontal regions; usually bilateral
DP: Infection causing acute necrosis, edema, and hemorrhage
Herpes simplex viral encephalitis (HSVE)
● Impairments of cortical functions appear early in cortical
dementia but not until the late stages of most subcortical
degenerative diseases.
● Motor impairments are prominent in the early stages.
Subcortical Dementia
A degenerative disease affecting nuclei in the midbrain
and brain stem
PD
● Is an inherited, degenerative neurologic disease
● Diagnostic markers:
○ chorea
○ cognitive decline
○ neurobehavioral symptoms
Huntington’s Disease
a symptom that causes involuntary, irregular, or unpredictable muscle
movements so it affects the person’s arms, legs, and facial muscles.
chorea
characterized by loss of neurons in the caudate nucleus and the putamen and patchy loss of cortical neurons in the frontal and temporal lobes, with occasional extension of neuron loss to the cerebellum
Huntington’s Disease
● A rare disease
● Begins between the ages of 50 and 80
● Peak incidence in the early 60
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)
Possible CAUSES of PSP:
○ Unknown;
○ Viruses or slowly acting toxins;
○ Genetic
Neuropathology of PSP
Caused by neuronal loss, neuronal abnormalities, and proliferation of glial cells throughout the brain stem and basal ganglia. Cortical neurons are largely spared.
Early Symptoms of PSP
○ Paralysis of muscles responsible for downward gaze
○ Rigidity of neck muscles
○ Facial muscle weakness
○ Dysarthria
