As our society progresses, we are all living longer. Mental health and the aging process is a tricky subject- the longer we live, the more at risk we are at with dealing with these diseases. Two of the most feared and most misunderstood diseases in old age are Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

Dementia is a cognitive degenerative disease that usually occurs because of disease or trauma, which leads to problems including: memory impairment, increased language difficulties, decreased motor skills, failure to recognized or identify objects, and disturbance of the ability to plan or think abstractly.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia that usually involves severe memory loss as time progresses.

These two diseases are feared in the older generation so much because of the prevalence of the diseases.
 As many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s.

• Alzheimer’s and dementia triple healthcare costs for Americans age 65 and older.

• Every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s.

• Alzheimer’s is the seventh-leading cause of death.

• The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias to Medicare, Medicaid and businesses amount to more than $148 billion each year.

  • About 13% of Americans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s and half of those over age 85 will develop Alzheimer’s

Dementia

  • Worldwide, there are now an estimated 24 million people living with some form of dementia.
  • Without a major medical breakthrough in the fight against dementia, this number could jump to as many as 84 million who have age-related memory loss by the year 2040.

Treatment:

At present, there are no effective treatments to prevent or stop the insidious nerve cell death process once the disease begins. However, there are some treatments that can be used to help manage and ease the symptoms in some patients. For instance, several FDA-approved drugs are designed to inhibit the breakdown of a chemical neurotransmitter, called acetylcholine, in the brain, which appears to be in short supply in Alzheimer’s patients. Medications can also be prescribed to help alleviate the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and delusions

Other strategies used to help patients with Alzheimer’s include psychotherapy techniques (reality orientation and memory retraining) and medications to relieve depression and calm agitated behavior. Vitamin E also may delay the decline in self-care. It is best used in early stages of the illness.

Alzheimer’s and dementia can be helped more efficiently with recognition of early signs, and with different pshycotherapy techniques.

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