Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease does not begin in all cases the same way. At first the symptoms may be subtle and resemble what many people think it is normal aging. In a large proportion of cases the first symptom is memory loss progresses. First there may be a fluctuating and occasional forgetfulness and subsequently a greater loss of memory of recent events. Symptoms may also occur frequently, such as repeating something, put things in the wrong place, lost in a familiar route, difficulty remembering the names of familiar objects, personality changes, lack of interest in things previously enjoyed, and difficulty carrying out tasks such as learning new information or routines, balancing a checkbook or participate in games. These are tasks that require some level of mental ability but that the person was previously carried out without problems.
In a later stage may have aggressive behavior and hallucinations, depression and / or delirium, problems in carrying out routine tasks such as preparing food or drive a car, losing awareness of who one is.
In the final stage of Alzheimer’s disease the patient no longer recognize their friends or relatives do not understand the language and can not perform basic activities such as eating, bathing or dressing. The person becomes totally dependent on others.
Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease
There is no test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. The diagnosis usually is performed based on clinical observation and some tests of memory and intellectual functioning. This should be done over several weeks or months. Physicians who specialize in problems with memory can perform a correct diagnosis between 85 and 90 percent of the time but the final confirmation can only be carried out through an autopsy in which you can confirm the presence in the brain changes characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.