Alzheimer’s Society
There are 800,000 people with dementia in theUKwith numbers set to rise to one million by 2021. Alzheimer’s Society is the leading support and research charity for people with dementia, their families and carers
The term ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms which include loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning
These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and damage caused by a series of small strokes
Dementia is progressive, which means the symptoms will gradually get worse. How fast dementia progresses will depend on the individual person and what type of dementia they have
Each person is unique and will experience dementia in their own way. It is often the case that the person’s family and friends are more concerned about the symptoms than the person may be themselves
Symptoms of dementia may include the following:
Loss of memory − this particularly affects short-term memory, for example forgetting what happened earlier in the day, not being able to recall conversations, being repetitive or forgetting the way home from the shops. Long-term memory is usually still quite good
Mood changes − people with dementia may be withdrawn, sad, frightened or angry about what is happening to them
Communication problems − including problems finding the right words for things, for example describing the function of an item instead of naming it
In the later stages of dementia, the person affected will have problems carrying out everyday tasks and will become increasingly dependent on other people.
Who gets dementia?
- Dementia mainly affects people over the age of 65 and the likelihood increases with age. However, it can affect younger people: there are over 17,000 people in theUKunder the age of 65 who have dementia
- Dementia can affect men and women
- Scientists are investigating the genetic background to dementia. It does appear that in a few rare cases the diseases that cause dementia can be inherited. Some people with a particular genetic make-up have a higher risk than others of developing dementia
