Dementia is an acquired and persistent impairment of higher mental functions, affecting multiple cognitive fields, and is severe enough to create problems in a person's daily, professional and social lives.

Dementia and Alzheimer's disease are not the same thing. The term dementia describes a clinical syndrome that includes the symptoms described below. Alzheimer's disease is simply the most common cause of dementia, accounting for about half of all cases. 

For this reason it is a standard dementia and its clinical picture is described below.

Clinical picture of Alzheimer's disease

Mild Dementia

·        Memory loss (a necessary symptom for the diagnosis of the disease). In the beginning the memory loss affects the short-term memory (recent events). The patient often repeats questions over and over again, loses things and seeks to find them, blames others for losing them and getting upset

·        Orientation disorder - time and space (The patient does not know what day it is, what month or what time we have. Often because of this disorder he/she loses their way to their house or the place where they were directed on going and wanders aimlessly).

·        Concentration disorder. It is evident from the beginning of the disease. The problem is that concentration disorders are caused by many other causes with the result that it rarely leads to patients seeking their doctor’s opinion.

·        Speech disorders. The patient cannot find the right word despite knowing it.

·        Construction difficulty. It is the inability to assemble or copy shapes.

·        Orientation disorder in faces. Normal people see the differences between two similar things, while demented people see the similarities in two different people.

·        Change in character. It often appears from the first symptom after the onset of the disease. Individuals become suspicious, insecure about money and the money that belongs to them, more easily irritated, with outbursts of aggression and anger or vice versa.

·        Minimization of solemnity , which emerges in social circumstances. Forgets to pay (manifested as antisocial behavior) or buttoned up (can be assessed as a backlash)

·        Reduced performance at work  

Moderate Dementia

·        Memory loss. The person cannot recall basic personal information such as address, phone, grandchildren names, graduation school. At the same time, difficulties are present on retaining new information (new acquaintances) but also in recalling not only recent but also old events.

·        Disorientation of time and space

·        Diminishing abstract thinking. The person has difficulty in identifying similarities and differences in related words, difficulty in defining words and concepts.

·        Effects on judgment (Inability to reason logically)

·        Concentration disorders (obvious and often with subtraction )

·        Misplacing Valuables

·        Mild to moderate stress as an accompanying symptom

·        Inability to perform complex tasks eg. difficult to count down in reverse

·        Inability to perform daily activities without assistance such as financial matters, cooking, shopping, washing, choosing the appropriate clothes.

·        Denial as a defense mechanism begins to become more apparent and later a basic defense mechanism

·        Ability to feel subsides.  

Severe Dementia

People with dementia can no longer survive or cope without help. Symptoms include:

·        Complete inability to recognize their environment, time, season.

·        Memory loss. It is difficult for people to recall recent events and experiences, but also the names of familiar people.

·        Personality and emotional disorders (possible delusional behavior with accusations against their spouse, speaking in a mirror, etc.), compulsive symptoms (eg. constant cleaning activities), anxiety symptoms, arousal, and even violent behavior may emerge

·        Psychotic disorders. They include persecution ideologies, false accusations, illusory behavior, unstableness, aggression.

·        Agnosia and Apraxia. Inability to use hands and objects.

·        Complete loss of function in daily activities (necessary help in the toilet-urinary incontinence, necessary help in eating)

·        Disturbance within the sleep-wake cycles

·        Possible Cognitive Impairment (inability to think to determine action)

·        Loss of any verbal activity

·        Loss of basic psychomotor functions (eg. inability to walk)

The diagnosis of dementia, the identification of the above stages and their treatment is made after a clinical and neuro-imaging examination, usually by a Neurologist or a Psychiatrist.