Types Of Dementia
There are many types of dementia, and these are usually described by a doctor during diagnosis. Dementia is the umbrella term for mental disorders caused by degeneration of brain cells. As more brain cells degenerate or die, the chemical reactions inside the brain also change. A person may not think as fast and as clearly as before. There are small but significant differences between the different types of dementia, which are important for diagnosis purposes. Even if the symptoms seem to be alike, some conditions may be present that make each type stand out.
One of the many types of dementia is the one that occurs later in life, long after a person has retired to old age. A more common term for this disorder is Alzheimer’s. Recent development in Alzheimer’s research tells us that there are early symptoms of this disorder, and that they can be detected and prevented. Some of the most glaring changes in the person occur when the symptoms are full blown. At this point, the person can no longer remember the names of the people around him, even family members and close friends. Some symptoms may also come in the form of behavioral modification like apathy, confusion, sudden outbursts and depression.
Only a specialist can really delineate between the different types of dementia. To laymen, this is simply the most common term to describe the condition of memory loss in elderly folks. But there are some types of dementia that occur in younger adults, especially those that have undergone trauma, whether physical or psychological.
Psychological trauma may hasten the development of dementia. This can be one type of dementia that is not as commonly studied as Alzheimer’s. Some experts are trying to find the link between post-traumatic stress disorder and dementia, and there have been some concrete results. It was found that the male veterans of war with post traumatic stress disorder are at higher risk of contracting dementia compared to those without PTSD. The mechanisms in the brain may be more susceptible to the degenerative disorder when the person is subjected to long-term stress.
Some younger adults also develop dementia because of injury to the brain. Mental injury may have been addressed but the different consequences associated with the injury should also be monitored. One of the consequences could be dementia, or one of the types of dementia that occur in young adults as opposed to that which occurs in elderly adults.
One type of dementia has something to do with the brain cells not receiving nutrition. Like Alzheimers, this type is generally characterized by memory loss. One common type is one that occurs when the injury caused low blood flow to the brain. Because some brain cells have not received sustenance in the form of blood for a time, the person may experience lapses in memory and even hallucinations. Some drug users that have been put in rehabilitation suffer from this. Because some drugs can damage the brain permanently with repeated use, some drug addicts are known to forget their own names, and the names of their loved ones.
