Dementia, or degenerative brain disease, affects millions of people. While the symptoms and their progression can vary widely from one patient to another, the disease follows a general path.  Although some people think that the stages of alzheimer’s dementia (each of these diseases) are the exact same, they are different.  They are similar in some ways, but try not to get them confused if you can help it. Dementia progress is divided into three major stages: early, moderate or mid-stage, and severe. These can be divided even further for a total of seven dementia stages. Below the early, mid-state, and later (or severe) stages of dementia are outlined and described.

Early Stage Dementia

Early dementia starts with a stage of entirely normal functioning. Neither the patients nor those around them notice any impairment. The disease then progresses to very mild impairment that may be attributed to normal forgetfulness. Patients may lose their keys or forget names and dates from time to time.

The final early stage is mild impairment. It is in this stage that the patient and others begin to notice a problem. In this stage, everyday forgetfulness becomes more common and noticeable mood changes such as anger or depression may arise.

Moderate or Mid-State Dementia

The first stage of mid-stage dementia is moderate decline. At this point, patients have more trouble with short-term memory and mental tasks such as arithmetic or planning events. They may also act inappropriately, either socially isolating or acting out.

The final stage is moderately severe decline, where patients begin to lose abilities such as performing simple arithmetic, tracking days, or even recalling their own address. They are still able to recognize family and perform many tasks but may struggle with everyday things such as remembering to eat or maintain good hygiene.

Severe Dementia

The most demanding stages for caregivers are the final two under severe dementia. In the first stage, severe decline, patients experience worsening mental symptoms, such as the inability to recall basic information or dress or use the bathroom by themselves. They require constant care because their sleep cycles no longer follow a normal pattern and they will tend to wander off. Personality changes become much more marked during this time as well, with patients exhibiting symptoms of paranoia or delusion.

Finally, patients, enter a stage of very severe decline. At this point, they are no longer able to recognize familiar people or objects. They also cannot communicate. Instead, they make noises or speak short phrases that are often out of context. Simply put, patients are no longer responsive; in cases of frontal lobe dementia, this may be more noticeable early on. Physically, they need complete care because they can no longer feed themselves, are incontinent, cannot walk, sit up, or use muscles for most basic physical activities.  Obviously vascular dementia stages may be slightly different from lewy body dementia stages and each person will be affected differently at different stages.  Talk to a medical professional for more information and to ask any questions that you may have.

Related posts:

  1. Frontal Lobe Dementia: General Description

Comments Off