A degenerative neurological disorder, dementia is prevalent in the elderly population. Epigee states that 20 percent of people between the ages of 85 and 89 and 33 percent of people 90 and older have the disorder. Dementia affects the patient's cognitive functions, such as memory and judgment. As the patient enters the more advanced stages of the disease, she loses the ability to care for herself.
Mild Cognitive Impairment
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the stage between normal forgetfulness and dementia, is the first possible sign of dementia; however, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) notes that not all MCI patients develop dementia. During MCI, the patient begins to have signs of memory loss; he has problems recalling events or conversations that recently took place. Problem solving is also affected, in which the patient takes longer to figure something out or makes more mistakes than before. The patient also displays problems when given more than one task to do at a time.
Early Dementia
When the patient advances to the early stage of dementia, language problems start to show. For example, the patient has trouble finding the name for a familiar object. Earlier problems with problem solving and tasks become worse, affecting the patient's ability to carry out regular tasks. The memory loss extends to losing items and forgetting familiar places. Family members may notice a change in the patient's personality; she may have mood shifts, a flat mood and a loss of social skills.
Moderate Dementia
In the moderate stage of dementia, the symptoms become noticeably worse. A patient's memory loss extends to both retrograde amnesia, with forgetting details about his life, and anterograde amnesia, with being unable to remember recent events. The patient also starts to mix up family members or temporarily forget who they are. A moderate dementia patient gets lost in familiar places. Language problems are also worse; the patient has difficulty reading and writing and uses the wrong word and pronunciation when speaking. During the moderate stage, the patient starts to display judgment and sleeping problems. The patient also socially withdraws and has more severe mood problems, such as violent behavior, depression and agitation. Hallucinations and delusions are also possible. The patient also has problems choosing appropriate clothing, driving, cooking and cleaning himself.
Severe Dementia
When the patient reaches severe dementia, she no longer can do the basic tasks needed for living, such as eating and washing herself. The memory loss is also severe; the patient cannot recognize her family or even everyday objects, such as a comb. The patient cannot control her movements and has problems getting around. Language skills are lost, and the patient is easily threatened. The patient can also experience incontinence, severe sleeping problems and worse symptoms at night.
