The word dementia describes a set of symptoms such as memory loss, difficulty concentrating, confusion and forgetfulness. Dementia is caused by diseases that affect the brain. Here we look at the different types of dementia and the common symptoms.
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Probably the most well-known and common form of dementia. With Alzheimer’s connections between brain cells are lost because of the build-up of proteins which build abnormal structures. It is a progressive disease and over time more parts of the brain are damaged, as this happens symptoms worsen and more develop.
Common symptoms
Memory: problems with memory may occur such as losing things, forgetting names, getting lost and difficulty recalling words.
Speech: you may find that people repeat themselves or say a different words to those they mean.
Concentration: difficulty concentrating or organising, this can make everyday tasks challenging.
Orientation: it’s quite common for people with Alzheimer’s disease to forget where they are and get lost or not remember the day or year.
Mood: mood changes are common in the early stages, and you may find they become very anxious, depressed, or easily annoyed.
VASCULAR DEMENTIA
This is the second most common cause of dementia. Some people have both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease which is called Mixed Dementia. Vascular dementia is caused when inadequate blood flow can’t get to the brain due to diseased blood vessels.
Although memory loss is common in most types of dementia, it’s not usually one of early symptoms of Vascular dementia.
Common Symptoms
Concentration: people may have difficulty concentrating or organising, following simple steps and slow thought processes, this can make everyday tasks challenging.
Speech: people may become less fluent in their speech.
Mood: mood swings are also common in the early stages you may find people become anxious or depressed; this may be due to them noticing the difficulties of the disease.
Physical: loss of bladder control is common in people with subcortical vascular dementia, and they also become prone to falls often due to weakness in the body. People with post-stroke vascular dementia may have weakness or paralysis in a particular part of the body dependant on which part of the brain was affected.
FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA
This is one of the less common types of dementia and you may know it as frontal lobe dementia or Pick’s disease. It’s caused when there is damage to the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain.
Common Symptoms
Behavioural variant FTD causes problems with behaviour and personality.
Primary Progressive Aphasia causes language problems.
MIXED DEMENTIA
About 1 in 10 people with dementia have mixed dementia, this is when they have more than one type of dementia. The most common form is Alzheimer’s disease with Vascular Dementia.
Common Symptoms
The symptoms are a mixture dependant on the mix of types of dementia, most commonly you’ll see one set of symptoms is more dominant.
LEWY BODY DEMENTIA
Dementia with Lewy bodies is caused by clumps of protein (Lewy bodies) in the nerve cells of the brain. Approximately 1 in 10 people with dementia have this.
Common symptoms
Concentration: problems staying focussed, making decisions and memory loss.
Hallucinations: these can be visual; seeing things that aren’t there which might be shapes, animals or people or auditory; hearing sounds or evens smelling or feeling things that aren’t there.
Sleep: problems can occur with sleep, both disturbed sleep at night and falling asleep very easily during the day.
Physical: you may see problems such as stiff limbs, limited facial expressions, being unbalanced and having difficulty walking.
There are also some rarer causes of dementia such as Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), approximately 1 in 20 people with dementia in the UK have a rarer type and symptoms can vary.
With most types of dementia however, the symptoms usually start off mild. They progress very gradually, and if you have them, you may not notice them. Dementia symptoms are different from naturally slowing down as we age, occasionally forgetting things and our thought processes generally slowing, as dementia symptoms are caused by disease. Because of this it can be hard to recognise the early stages in a friend or loved one. If you’ve noticed that a person is struggling to remember what they did the day before, is forgetting names of objects or people or perhaps they are repeating things over and over then it’s a good idea to encourage them to see their GP.