Dementia Lecture Powerpoint Flashcards
Most common type of dementia in patients >65 years old
Alzheimer’s disease
Dementia definition
Syndrome characterized by progressive loss of cognitive functions that interfere with patients daily living as well as anterograde amnesia (cannot learn new things and have difficulty with language, abstract reasoning, judgement, visuospatial processing, etc)
What is NOT affected in dementia but is in delirium? (2 things)
Arousal and alertness
Short term memory is stored in the ___, long term memory is stored in the ___ and acquired via ____. Remote memory (>6 months to years) is stored in the ___, no longer requiring ____ for retrieval
Pre-frontal cortex, hippocampus, rehearsal, neo-cortex, hippocampus
Alzheimer’s disease epidemiology
1 in 9 people age 65 and older, 1/3 age 85 and older, mean survival is 8-10 years from onset without treatment, but 15+ with treatment
Alzheimer’s disease Risk factors, which is the greatest? (4)
- Age (greatest)
- Family and genetics
- Past head trauma
- Lifestyle and heart health
Alzheimer’s disease clinical features (5)
- Anosgnosia (loss of awareness of one’s own deficits)
- memory dysfunction
- personality change
- psychiatric disturbance
- late stage motor involvement
Clinical course of alzheimer’s disease
Mild: memory/orientation
Moderate: activities of daily living
Severe: behavioral disorders, nutrition, hygiene
Alzheimer’s effect on memory
-Immediate and short term are affected first, remote not impaired until disease advances
Apraxia
loss or impairment of ability to execute complex coordinated movement usually a later finding of alzheimer’s disease
Sundowning theory
Theorized to be due to remote memory remaining in an alzheimer’s patient despite lack of short term memory causing them to be triggered at certain points later in the day to be confused as to why their routine from their remote memory is interrupted leading to distress
Alzheimer’s disease diagnostic criteria (5)
- progression over 6 months
- anterograde amnesia
- multiple cognitive deficits
- impairment in functioning
- other conditions ruled out
Best diagnostic study for mild cognitive impairment
Montreal cognitive Assessment (MOCA) (better than the mini mental status exam)
Alzheimer’s diagnostic studies (5)
- CBC, electrolytes, TSH, B12 (checking if infection or other cause for symptoms in elderly)
- CT or MRI (rule out)
- EEG (rule out nonconvulsive seizures)
- Lumbar puncture (not routine, rule out metastatic cancer, hydrocephalus, etc)
- Genetic councilor referral (amyloid ligand PET imaging not typically covered by insurance)
There is no ____ for screening for Alzheimer’s
Gold standard
Alzheimer’s disease is a diagnosis of…
…exclusion
MRI findings Alzheimer’s disease (2)
- Diffuse cerebral atrophy in frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes
- Hippocampal atrophy
Microscopic findings of Alzheimer’s disease (3)
- Neurofibrillary tangles in hippocampus
- neuritic plaques containing amyloid in cortical cells
- granular-vacular degernation of neurons especially in hippocampus
Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiology
-Reduced amount of acetycholine and reduced activity in entire cholinergic pathway (basal forebrain to cortex and hippocampus)
Treatment for Alzheimer’s is ____ not ____
palliative (preservative), curative
Drugs to slow progression of Alzheimer’s (2)
- Acetycholine and butylcholine esterase inhibitors
- N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists (NMDA)
Alzheimer’s disease admission criteria (5)
- acute illness cannot be managed by patient or caregivers at home
- short term admission for eval and adjustment to psychotropic meds
- short term respite care
- long term care facility if cannot be provided at home
- hospice care if <6 months
Mild cognitive impairment in alzheimer’s disease treatment (4)
- pharmacologic treatment not effective!
- exercise
- cognitive interventions
- long term planning
Moderate cognitive impairment in alzheimer’s disease treatment (3)
- cholinesterase inhibitors recommended but benefit is modest
- vit E supplementation
- exercise
Severe cognitive impairment in alzheimer’s disease treatment (4)
- Cholinesterase inhibitors
- Memantine
- antipsychotics to treat severe agitation and psychosis if dangerous
- management of comfort
Alzheimer’s disease medications do not….
….work well for everyone
Vascular dementia definition
Dementia brought on by either multiple or singular (rare) infarcts decreasing adequate blood flow to the brain (ischemia, not necessarily stroke), begins as mild changes and worsens gradually leading to cumulative damage