Vascular Dementia
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Vascular Dementia
Introduction
Aging is a constant process and most probably the only constant thing. Everything goes through this constant process of aging. Aging is the process of wear and tear in anything, whether it’s a living thing or a non-living thing. The speed of this process varies for every little thing. Some things take a long time to age and some things age in a very short time. Same is applicable for human beings as well.
The human body constantly undergoes a process of wear and tear. As already discussed this process of aging varies from individual to individual. Some people show signs of aging at a very young age while others remaining young for a very long time, but6 aging cannot be denied. Every person becomes old and undergoes the natural process before death. And it is not only the body that undergoes this process, the human mind also undergoes the aging process.
The human mind or the brain becomes a victim to various ailments as a person progresses towards his or her later stage of life. The human mind also becomes old and goes through wear and tear. This wear and tear are shown in the form of various kind of diseases like depression. Dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. One of the most common mental issues found in the elderly is Dementia. Dementia is a collective term used for the conditions and the diseases that are characterized by loss in memory, problem-solving skills, language and thinking skills. The skills that are affected as a result of aging or more appropriately Dementia are the ones that are used in daily life and if elevated, they can affect the daily life of the person.
Dementia has a number of types and every type has almost the same symptoms but some of the types are more server in nature as compared to the others. One of the most common types of mental illness is Vascular Dementia. Vascular Dementia is a general term describing the issues with reasoning, planning, judgment, calculations, memory, and other thought processes. These issues are caused by the brain damage that is caused by the impaired blood flow to the brain. A person can develop Vascular Dementia if they undergo an injury and or a stroke on the brain. Any blockage in the arteries supplying blood to the brain can also cause the issue of vascular dementia. The following paper will discuss the disease in a little more detail, including the symptoms, causes and finally the treatment of the illness. Moreover the following research paper will also look at the ways that how medical practitioners especially nurses should behave around and take care of a patient with Vascular Dementia.
Discussion
Treatment
The first step, the hardest step, is to inform the Primary Physician. They are fully capable of running a very brief test of cognitive skills. It won’t determine if the person has dementia but it can point to whether everything is fine or if something may be going on. If there are problems the Physician will refer the person to a Neurologist who will conduct a more thorough cognitive exam. The Neurologist will also order a variety of tests to weed out the possible conditions that can be fixed and to confirm the potential dementia diagnosis. Chances are very good that the worst a patient will face is called mild cognitive impairment which should be considered a wake-up call. Full-blown dementia is defined as cognitive impairment that interferes with daily life.
The reason to see a Neurologist is that there are forms of dementia that can be halted in its tracks and in some cases reversed. Now, Vascular dementia is not one that can be reversed, but there is dementia caused by a vitamin B-12 deficiency, and alcohol and drugs can sometimes be reversed. Depression can cause symptoms that mimic dementia, and an underactive thyroid is another one that can sometimes be reversed. But all of these are rare and most cases of dementia that are caused by disease or injury cannot be reversed and are progressive in nature. Vascular Dementia can definitely be slowed down by the proper maintaining of the levels of blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure. Any person or medical practitioner cannot undo the damage but with the proper maintenance and changes in the lifestyle they can slow it way down and maybe halt the progression.
Life Expectancy
It's dismal however evident that individuals with dementia, for the most part, have shorter lives. In any case, precisely how much shorter their life will fluctuate hugely from individual to individual. Here's the key data about future, yet recall, these are just broad measurements so ponder whether you truly need to know, before you read on. The future is one of the key gives that somebody determined to have dementia or their loved ones, need to know, however there is no straightforward answer. Dementia is frequently called a 'real existence constraining' condition in spite of the fact that individuals have been referred to live with it for up to 26 years after they first start indicating side effects. As a rule, the future of an individual with dementia relies upon the kind of dementia they are determined to have, their age and wellbeing. Most studies appear to show that the normal number of years somebody will live with dementia in the wake of being analyzed is around ten years. It's significant not to take this number – or some other – as reality, however to utilize it as directed, and an approach to get ready and make the most of consistently.
Realities about what's to come
Concentrates into the fundamental kinds of dementia have uncovered the accompanying about future
Alzheimer's Disease
General future for somebody with Alzheimer's is around 8-12 years from finding in spite of the fact that this depends on age and wellbeing. In the event that you were generally fit and sound on determination, you could live impressively longer than this. Individuals who are analyzed around the age of 60-65 will in general decrease more gradually than the individuals who are matured 80 or over. Be that as it may, with the correct consideration and treatment, a fit and sound multi-year old could at present life into their nineties.
Vascular Dementia
Since vascular dementia is regularly connected to strokes individuals who are living with it very well may be in less fortunate general wellbeing than those with different kinds of dementia. Studies have indicated their normal future to associate with four years after determination, however, their possible decrease is frequently connected to additionally strokes.
Dementia with Lewy Bodies
After finding, the normal life expectancy of somebody with dementia with Lewy bodies was seen in one study as around 5-7 years after beginning. Anyway, individuals have been known to live somewhere in the range of two and 20 years with it, contingent upon their age, and other ailments they may have, for example, Parkinson's malady which can be identified with dementia with Lewy bodies.
Frontotemporal Dementia
The normal life expectancy for somebody with frontotemporal dementia is around eight years from when their side effects previously began, yet by and by, this can shift significantly from individual to individual. Numerous individuals have lived for over ten years with this sort of dementia. Nearly everybody who creates one of the principle types of dementia will live more on the off chance that they are by and large healthy or are moderately youthful when analyzed, that is, in their mid-sixties as opposed to mid-eighties.
Anyway, this is tragically not generally the situation when somebody is determined to have youthful beginning dementia. For reasons which are as yet being logically examined, youthful beginning dementia appears to advance all the more rapidly. For instance, an individual who is determined to have frontotemporal dementia between the ages of 30-50 could live, by and large, around two years short of what somebody analyzed in their sixties or seventies. Notwithstanding, this might be on the grounds that more youthful individuals are frequently analyzed when their condition is further developed so the ailment appears to advance more rapidly than it really does. While each individual is unique, and each dementia venture is extraordinary, in the event that you need greater lucidity about to what extent you or your cherished one may live, contemplates recommend that the primary components to consider are:
1. Age (old individuals will, in general, have a shorter future)
2. General wellbeing when analyzed (ie, in the event that they are generally healthy or are additionally adapting to other ailments).
3. Which type of dementia they have (as should be obvious from the data over, some advancement more quickly than others).
4. The amount they can at present accomplish for themselves every day. Specialists call this 'utilitarian capacity,' and it appears to issue more than 'psychological capacity'. As it were, individuals who keep on taking a stab at getting things done for themselves, regardless of whether their dementia is very best in class, will, in general, live longer than the individuals who stop.
Difference between Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
Dementia is a symptom of a long term brain disease, in which the brain is unable to perform at a level good enough to let the patient live a normal life. On the other hand, Alzheimer’s is the most common degenerative illness that causes dementia in the elderly, but there are many others, such as Lewy Body dementia, frontotemporal and even Parkinson’s. In all of these, neurons die away in a one-by-one pattern, mostly because of toxic byproducts. The difference in symptoms depends on the regions that suffer the biggest loss of neurons. In Alzheimer’s, it happens mostly in regions that have to do with memory, but in FTD it’s the frontal regions, which manage behavior. Vascular dementia is a completely different thing in which strokes or small hemorrhages destroy batches of neurons at different times in scattered regions of the brain. So, in Alzheimer’s type dementia the patient gets a progressive and steady loss of faculties, mostly memory, and the rest of symptoms (apathy, paranoia, clumsiness) stem from that.
In vascular dementia, the patient gets a worsening in “steps”, which can affect different areas of the brain. Gait and balance tend to be affected rather early, as well as mood and behavior. The memory may be spared in a way that’s unrelated to the global deterioration of the person. But the most important thing is that vascular damage shows up very clearly in CT scans and MRIs as scars, while degenerative dementias such as Alzheimer’s don’t.
Nurse’s Role in Caring for People with Dementia
Taking care of people with Dementia, especially Vascular Dementia is extremely difficult. The best advice that is given by a medical practitioner or neurologist in order to take the best care of a patient with Vascular Dementia is to keep them with family members. Doctors suggest that the kind of care that can be provided by a family member can never be provided by a professional caregiver. There is a lot of difference between the kind of care a professional caregiver and a family member. However, no matter, whether a nurse is handling the patient or a family member, the situation never changes. The level of difficulty remains the same.
For a nurse to take care of a patient suffering from Vascular Dementia, it is extremely important to understand the level or the stage at which the patient is standing. The nurse should exhibit extremely calm and composed behavior when they are around the patient. It is a very stressful and full-time job; the nurse may feel tired or even bored at times but it requires quite a lot of patience and tolerance. The nurse should be fully equipped with complete knowledge of the disease. In addition to this, he or she should be fully equipped with the aids that are required for the patient of Vascular Dementia like walking aid or helpful equipment for the back pain. The nurse or the caregiver should also focus on giving little mental exercises and healthy activities like walk and physical exercises.
Conclusion
In short, it can be concluded that any sort of mental illness is difficult to handle. Elderly people tend to suffer more from mental illnesses than young ones. One of the most common mental illnesses that can be seen in the people of old age is Dementia. There are various types of Dementia, one of the prominent ones out of all these is Vascular Dementia. Vascular Dementia is the issue of brain in which the ability of thinking, problem-solving and memory is affected. It can be caused due to any stroke or injury on brain but is treatable. It can be diagnosed with the help of an MRI test or a simple CT scan and can be treated with the help of minor mental exercises and medication.
References
Khan, A., Kalaria, R.N., Corbett, A. and Ballard, C., 2016. Update on vascular dementia. Journal of geriatric psychiatry and neurology, 29(5), pp.281-301.
Rizzi, L., Rosset, I. and Roriz-Cruz, M., 2014. Global epidemiology of dementia: Alzheimer’s and vascular types. BioMed research international, 2014.
Román, G.C., Erkinjuntti, T., Wallin, A., Pantoni, L. and Chui, H.C., 2002. Subcortical ischaemic vascular dementia. The Lancet Neurology, 1(7), pp.426-436.
T O'Brien, J. and Thomas, A., 2015. Vascular dementia. The Lancet, 386(10004), pp.1698-1706.
Venkat, P., Chopp, M. and Chen, J., 2015. Models and mechanisms of vascular dementia. Experimental neurology, 272, pp.97-108.
Versijpt, J., 2014. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the pharmacological treatment of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 42(s3), pp.S19-S25.
Xing, S.H., Zhu, C.X., Zhang, R. and An, L., 2014. Huperzine A in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia: a meta-analysis. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2014.
