Dementia is a cognitive disorder marked by personality changes, disruptions in memory, and impaired reasoning. It affects approximately 10% of people over the age of 70. Dementia is a common manifestation of multiple conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, vascular disease, severe vitamin B12 deficiency, and untreated hypothyroidism. In most cases, the condition progresses slowly over years to months, but if detected early, a timely intervention may be able to slow or even reverse its progression. Here are some telltale signs of dementia:
1. Increased confusion about time and place
A common early sign of dementia is getting confused in familiar locations. The person may get lost while out on their morning walk in the neighborhood they have walked in for years. They may also mistake morning for evening and do things like get ready for work on a Saturday evening because they think it is early Monday morning. Like all symptoms of dementia, these symptoms start out barely noticeable and then gradually worsen.
2. Memory loss
One of the earliest signs of dementia is memory loss. Not all memories, just memories of very recent and rather trivial things, such as forgetting where they left the keys, forgetting a conversation they had yesterday, forgetting whether they had taken their medication or turned off the oven. These memory lapses start out similar to the minor absentmindedness most adults experience and then gradually become worse. Patients with early dementia also tend to confabulate. Confabulation describes a common phenomenon where you can’t quite remember certain details about an event, object, or person, so your brain quietly fills in the blank with a made-up detail; you are unaware of this process. As a pre-dementia patient’s memory worsens, their brain starts to fill in increasing numbers of details about an event to the point their story becomes unrecognizable to other people who were present during the event.
3. Behavioral changes
Most people with early stages of dementia exhibit behavioral changes, but there is no consistent pattern to them. Some people withdraw, stop doing their normal activities, and become quiet. Others may exhibit anxiety and mood swings, repetitive behaviors, or even outbursts of anger. The key factor is the person’s behavior changes, and not just for a couple of days; the change is progressive and permanent. Older persons are also at high risk for depression, and depression can cause similar changes; however, unlike Alzheimer’s, depression is treatable.
4. Problem solving difficulties
Daily life is full of minor problems that have to be solved. The bills must be paid on time and the accounts balanced, the menus must be planned in advance so the correct ingredients can be purchased while grocery shopping, the car has to be serviced and filled up with gasoline in a timely fashion, and so forth. People in the early stages of dementia may experience increasing difficulty in performing these basic life tasks and their previously orderly life may become chaotic.
5. Speech and communication issues
People in the early stages of dementia struggle to recall names and words. They may forget what they are saying in the middle of a sentence, and lose track of the conversation. They may ramble on, describe objects rather than using the correct word, and look puzzled or just nod quietly when spoken to because they don’t understand what was just said. It is essential to consider the possibility of hearing loss when an older person starts to exhibit signs of difficulty with communication.
