Dementia Flashcards
What are the attitudes and language which categorise ageism?
- ugly and useless
- an elder vs. the elderly
- grey hordes
- plague of wrinkles
What is ageism?
prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age
If you ask someone what they are most worried about in later life, how does this vary to if you asked someone over 65 what they were most worried about?
A younger person says that they are most worried about cancer
Someone over 65 will say that they are most worried about dementia
Why is dementia not described as a disease?
It is a causal condition
There is an underlying pathology that leads to dementia
How does dementia affect an individual and the brain?
It causes a deterioration in intellectual functioning and social behaviour
It does NOT affect the brain uniformly
How does ICD-10 define dementia and its nature?
It is a syndrome due to disease of the brain
It is chronic or progressive in nature
According to ICD-10, how does dementia affect the brain?
There is disturbance of multiple higher cortical functions
e.g. decline in memory, thinking, learning capacity, judgement
According to ICD-10, how does dementia affect consciousness and emotion?
Consciousness is not clouded
Dementia is accompanied by deterioration in emotional control, social behaviour or motivation
what are the different dementia syndromes and how many cases do they account for?
Alzheimer’s disease - 62%
Vascular dementia - 17%
Mixed dementia (AD and VaD) - 10%
Dementia with Lewy bodies - 4%
Fronto-temporal dementia - 2%
Parkinson’s dementia - 2%
Other dementias - 3%
What are the characteristics of mild dementia?
Cognitive decline limits functional activities but independent living is possible
What are the characteristics of moderate dementia?
There is seriously inhibited functional activity
Familiar material is maintained but independent living is not possible
What are the characteristics of severe dementia?
Complete inability to retain new information
Assistance is required for all daily living activities
There is very limited communication
How many people in the UK have dementia?
How many of these are under 65?
850,000 people in the Uk have dementia
42,000 are under 65
What proportion of dementia patients are female?
Why?
2/3 of people with dementia are female
This is because women live longer than men
What proportion of people in care homes have dementia?
2/3 of people in care homes have dementia
Which group of people have an increased risk of developing dementia?
People with learning disabilities
e.g. Down’s syndrome