The term dementia is derived from the Latin words 'de' denoting 'apart' and 'mens' signifying the 'mind'. In fact, the word dementia is used to denote a condition wherein the cognitive function or the intelligence worsens gradually.
In other words, it is a set of symptoms attributed to certain maladies that have an effect on the brain.
However, dementia does not mean any particular ailment. In fact, people enduring these groups of symptoms may not have the ability to reason appropriately enough to perform their usual actions like dressing up or eating.
In addition, such patients may also be deprived of the aptitude to work out their difficulties or be in charge of their feelings.
The behaviours or traits of such individuals may also undergo changes. It is likely that these people may be worked up easily and also see objects that are actually not there.
Dementia is basically an expression that describes a cluster of symptoms that may be attributed to several maladies which have an effect on the brain.
The cerebral performance of individuals suffering from dementia is considerably damaged and this actually gets in the way of their usual doings as well as relationships.
Such people also do not have the aptitude to resolve their difficulties as well as have control over their emotions. In addition, they may experience changes in their character and face interactive troubles like mirages, illusions and anxieties.
Although loss of memory is a common symptom among dementia patients, this does not imply that anyone who is suffering from memory loss is affected by this unusual malady.
Usually physicians diagnose a person to be suffering from dementia if they suffer from two or more disorders of the brain like loss of verbal communication, memory loss, lacking in perception or the cognitive ability - counting way of thinking and judgment.
Significantly enough, though people suffering from dementia have their intellect considerably damages, they do not lose consciousness.
It is important to note that although loss of memory is a very widespread indication of dementia, by itself loss of memory does not denote that an individual is suffering from the malady.
In fact, people suffering from this ailment usually endure two or more serious problems in the functioning of their brain, for instance, memory and verbal communication.
Several dissimilar ailments, such as Alzheimer's disease and stroke, may be responsible for developing dementia. A number of medicines are available to treat a number of maladies that may cause dementia.
While these medications may not be able to cure dementia completely or restore the harm done to the brain, they certainly are able to provide relief from the symptoms of the condition as well as inhibit the progress of the ailment.
When an individual endures Alzheimer's disease or any of the different forms of dementia, the progress of these disease results in several nerve cells ceasing to function, get detached from other neurons and eventually die.
On the contrary, when an individual undergoes the normal aging process, it does not lead to the death of an abundance of neurons in the brain.
The mental derangement caused by dementia may be categorized in several dissimilar methods. While classifying the disorders endeavour is made to form a collection of the derangements that have specific aspects common to them.
For instance, classifications are made on the basis of whether the disorders are becoming more severe and the regions of the brain that have been affected by the disease.
Some of the common categorization of the disorders endured by people suffering from dementia includes the following aspects:
This type of dementia includes the Alzheimer's disease and is not caused by any other ailment.
When an individual develops mental disorders causing dementia owing to any injury or physical ailment the condition is known as secondary dementia.
In this case the symptoms of dementia deteriorate with each passing day and increasingly hinder the cerebral or intellectual actions of the patient.
This is a type of dementia which basically harms the cortex or the external stratum of the brain. People suffering from cortical dementia usually have troubles with remembrance, verbal communication, ability to think as well as their social behaviour and relations.
In this case, the regions of the brain below the cortex or the outer layer are affected. This category of the disease has a tendency to result in changes in the patient's movements and feeling or emotions. In addition, it also affects the memory of the patient.
There are a number of types of dementia that may be incorporated in several of the above mentioned classifications. For instance, the Alzheimer's disease may be classified under progressive as well as cortical dementia.
Among people who are 65 years old and above, Alzheimer's disease is said to be the most widespread reason for dementia. According to medical specialists, presently, as many as four million people are enduring this malady in the United States alone.
In fact, researches have found out that approximately one in every 10 people above 65 years and almost 50% of people above 85 years are suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Every year, a minimum of 360,000 people in the United States are detected to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease and around 50,000 of them succumb to their illness.
Generally, the signs of Alzheimer's disease become visible after a person has attained 65 years of age. Nevertheless, there are types of Alzheimer's disease where the symptoms appear quite early in life.
These symptoms are normally related to particular genetic flaws and many become visible even when a person is just 30 years of age.
People suffering from Alzheimer's disease usually experience a decrease in their cerebral or intellectual aptitude and this normally happens during a period of just seven to ten years.
When an individual is afflicted by Alzheimer's disease, he or she experiences damage of nerve cells in the brain that affects all activities controlled by it - movement, verbal communication, memory, judgment, performance as well as abstract thinking (thinking distinguished by the capability to use perceptions and to make and comprehend generalizations).
In fact, two aberrations in the brain usually distinguish Alzheimer's disease - neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques, from other forms of dementia.
Amyloid plagues are actually abnormal clusters of a protein called beta amyloid and are normally present in the tissues located between the nerve cells. They are found in company with deteriorate fragments of neurons and other types of cells.
Neurofribils are describes as long, fine and minute fibers or filaments that pass through the neurons and spread out to the axon and dendrites providing form and support to the neuron.
Neurofribils tangles are clusters of twisted neurofribils that are present in the body of a neuron found in the brain cells of patients enduring Alzheimer's disease.
They more or less comprise a protein called tau. In neurons that are vigorous, this protein facilitates the working of microtubules that form a part of the cell's physical support and provide substances all through the nerve cell.
On the other hand, in the case of Alzheimer's disease, the tau protein is transformed in such a manner that it is twisted in pairs of spiral fibers that eventually form knots or get intervened. In such situations, the microtubules are unable to operate and, hence, collapse.
The disintegration of the transportation system of the neurons is likely to break the communication between the nerve cells and they eventually pass away.
It may be mentioned here that till date, scientists are yet to ascertain if neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques are actually detrimental for the patients enduring Alzheimer's disease or they are simply spin-offs of the malady's process that harms the neurons and results in the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
However, the scientists are aware of the fact that the amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles generally augment in the brain with the advancement of Alzheimer's disease.
During the initial stages of Alzheimer's disease, the patients may endure loss of memory, decline in the ability to give opinions and even delicate personality alterations.
With the advancement of the malady, patients not only find difficulty in remembering things and in their verbal communications, but also find it problematic to perform their routine activities like bearing in mind when to take medicines and maintaining their check book accounts.
In due course, the patients may also experience visuospatial problems (problems relating to visual perception of spatial relationships among objects) like trouble in finding the way in unknown directions.
People suffering from Alzheimer's disease are also likely to become confused regarding locations and times and experience hallucination - for instance, someone is robbing them of something or their spouse is being adulterous.
In addition, such patients may also turn out to be irritable or impatient and, in some cases, even antagonistic or aggressive.
In the latter phase of Alzheimer's disease, the patients start losing their aptitude to be in control of their cerebral functions and may have problems in swallowing, lose bowel and regulating the working of the bladder.
Ultimately, the patients lose their ability to identify or recognize even their family members as well as their capability to speak. As Alzheimer's disease advances, the malady also starts having an effect on the patient's feelings/ sensations and activities.
Eventually, majority of the people suffering from Alzheimer's disease have symptoms like hostility, irritation/ anxiety, dejection, insomnia and/ or hallucinations.
Generally, after an individual is diagnosed of having suffered from Alzheimer's disease, they live for another eight to ten years.
Nevertheless, there are instances when people enduring this malady have even lived for 20 years after being diagnosed.
It has been seen that majority of the people suffering from Alzheimer's disease generally succumb to aspiration pneumonia (inflammation of the lungs caused by inhaling or choking on substances vomited by them), as during the course of the ailment, they lose the capability to gulp down late.
Next to Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia is the most widespread reason for people developing dementia.
Generally speaking, vascular dementia comprises around 20 per cent of all forms of dementias and is said to be a result of brain damage owing to cerebrovascular or cardiovascular troubles, especially strokes.
Often vascular dementia may also be caused due to genetic ailments, amyloid angiopathy (a procedure wherein amyloid protein accumulates in the blood vessels of the brain occasionally resulting in 'bleeding' strokes called hemorrhagic) or endocarditis (contagion of a heart valve). It has been found that many patients often concurrently suffer from vascular dementia as well as Alzheimer's disease.
This ailment is common in both men and women and usually occurs at an advanced age and worsens as the person ages.
This form of dementia is a deteriorating cerebrovascular ailment that results in a continual degeneration in the intellectual and cognitive operations.
Vascular dementia usually takes place when the flow of the blood transporting oxygen and nourishments from the heart to the brain is obstructed owing to a mass in the vascular system or when the vascular system is unhealthy.
This disorder usually develops in people who are in the age group of 60 years and 75 years. In fact, vascular dementia distresses more men than women.
There are several types of vascular dementia and the most widespread among them is called multi-infarct dementia. Successions of mini or minor strokes that are usually ignored by people are responsible for this type of vascular dementia.
Although the strokes may be trivial in nature, they result in the harm of the brain's cortex or outer stratum that is related to recollection, speech and knowledge.
Often, such small strokes are denoted as transient ischemic attacks (briefly called TIAs) that cause intermittent and part obstruction to the blood supply to the brain as well as temporary damage in consciousness or vision.
Nevertheless, eventually, the harm done to the brain tissues gets in the way of cerebral or cognitive performances of the patient and disturbs their routine operations.
Precisely speaking, multi-infract dementia results in the lack of functioning in particular regions of the brain. The disease harms a number of cerebral and neurological functions, but not all the operations of the brain.
On many occasions, vascular dementia develops along side other forms of dementia like Alzheimer's disease and in such cases the condition is called 'mixed dementia'.
The symptoms of vascular dementia differ in different patients. However, the impact of the disease is same in all the patients - it generally makes it more difficult for the patients to carry out their routine functions.
As the disease advances causing more harm to the brain cells and tissues, the patients lose their ability to eat, dress, shop, walk and even talk properly. The different and widespread symptoms of vascular dementia are noted below.
It is important to note that the signs and symptoms of vascular dementia appear unexpectedly and usually following a stroke.
People who develop vascular dementia may possibly have a history of vascular ailment, high blood pressure (hypertension), earlier strokes or heart attacks.
Conditional on whether the patient suffers from previous strokes, vascular dementia may or may not deteriorate with the passage of time.
Actually, in a number of cases, symptoms of vascular dementia may improve as time passes. However, when the ailment deteriorates, it actually advances gradually before the cerebral and physical capabilities of the patient changes abruptly.
However, vascular dementia accompanied by brain injury in the middle regions of the brain may result in a steady and continuing cerebral damage that may resemble the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
Nevertheless, there are some basic differences in the symptoms of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
While people enduring Alzheimer's disease are robbed of their personal characteristics as well as the usual levels of emotional reactions, vascular dementia patients are free of these symptoms till the later phases of the ailment.
It is significant to note that patients suffering from vascular dementia often roam about during night-time and also endure other problems that are common in people who have suffered a stroke.
Such problems may include depression and incontinence (inability to hold back natural discharges of urine or feces).
Since the infarcts in Multi-infarct dementia (MID) have an effect on the cut off regions of the brain, the symptoms of vascular dementia are frequently restricted to one side of the body.
Alternately, they may possibly have an effect on only one or a small number of particular functions like verbal communication or ability to speak properly.
According to neurologists, such symptoms are 'local' or 'focal' signs, something opposite to the 'global' symptoms noticed in the case of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. In fact, Alzheimer's disease has an effect on several operations and is necessarily limited to only one side of the body.
It needs to be noted that all strokes do not result in the development of dementia. Nevertheless, in a number of instances even a solitary stroke has the ability to harm the brain sufficiently to lead to dementia.
A medical condition like this is known as single-infarct dementia. In fact, it has been found that dementia occurs more often when the left side or hemisphere of the brain is affected by a stroke.
It is also common to develop dementia when the stroke affects the hippocampus - the structure of the brain that is imperative for reminiscence or memory.
Binswanger's disease is a new variety of vascular dementia. This is a very exceptional type of dementia and distinguished by the damage done by the diseases to the smaller blood vessels in the brain's white matter.
The substance present in the inside stratum of the brain and encloses numerous nerve fibers that are covered with a white colored fatty material known as myelin.
Patients suffering from Binswanger's disease experience abrasions in the brain, memory loss, chaotic cerebral function as well as mood changes and depression.
In addition, other symptoms of this rare type of dementia may include stroke, anomalous blood pressure, aberrations in blood, ailments of the large blood vessels in the region of the neck and/ or ailments of the heart valves.
People suffering from Binswanger's disease also face loss of control to retain urine, problems in walking, sluggishness, awkwardness, absence of any facial expression and difficulty in speaking or verbal communication.
Normally, the symptoms first become noticeable when the patients are over 60 years old. Significantly enough, all these symptoms may not appear in all patients of Binswanger's disease and even if they do appear, sometimes they are only intermittent problems.
Thus far, scientists are yet to develop a precise treatment of Binswanger's disease and presently the treatment of this rare disorder is basically based on the symptoms.
In fact, physicians treating Binswanger's disease may also recommend medications that are used to cure depression, regulate high blood pressure or hypertension, low blood pressure and heart arrhythmias (irregular heart beat).
People suffering from this rare cerebral disorder often experience incidents of limited recuperation.
CADASIL (cerebral autosomal dominant aeteriopathy with subcortical infarct and leukoencephalopathy) is yet another form of vascular dementia and this disorder is considered to be a highly uncommon hereditary disease.
This form of vascular dementia is associated with aberrations of a particular gene Notch3, present in chromosome 19.
This condition can cause strokes along with multi-infarct dementia, mood swings and migraine with aura (a feeling, as of lights or a current of warm or cold air, prior to a migraine attack).
The symptoms of this disease first appear when the patients are in their 20s, 30s or 40s and they usually succumb to the disorder by the time they are 65 years old.
Scientists are of the view that most incidents of CADASIL actually go unnoticed as well as undiagnosed and, hence, the precise occurrence or frequency of the malady is yet to be ascertained.
Vascular dementia may occur owing to a number of reasons and some of the common causes for this disease may include inflammation of the blood vessels, vasculitis (inflammation of a blood or lymph vessel and is also called angiitis), profound hypotension or extremely low blood pressure as well as abrasions attributable to brain hemorrhage.
In addition, the blood vessels may also be damaged resulting to dementia due to the inflammatory ailment temporal arteritis and the auto-immune disease called lupus erythematosus.
Among all forms of progressive dementia, Lewy body dementia (LBD, in brief) is the most widespread.
This disorder only takes place once in a while and especially in people who do not have any history of the ailment in the family. Nevertheless, there have been rare cases when the disease was passed on hereditarily.
Lewy body dementia affects the cells in the cortex (outer stratum) of the brain as well as some of the cells located in the middle of the brain - substantia nigra. Soon after these cells are affected by the disease, they die.
However, several remaining cells in the brain's region called substantia nigra comprise anomalous formations called Lewy bodies and these are the characteristic of the disease.
In addition to substantia nigra, the Lewy bodies may also be present in the cortex of the brain.
In fact, the Lewy bodies enclose a protein known as alpha-synuclein, which has been associated with Parkinson's disease as well as many other maladies.
While researchers occasionally denote these disorders in a group as 'synucleinopathies', they are yet to ascertain the reason that leads the alpha-synuclein protein builds up within the nerve cells in Lewy body dementia.
Some of the characteristics of Lewy body dementia are similar to those of Alzheimer's disease as well as Parkinson's disease. Like in the case of Alzheimer's disease,
Lewy body dementia also results in perplexity and confusion, while it may even cause firm muscles, sluggish movements and shudders as they happen in patients suffering from Parkinson's disease.
However, the most remarkable sign of the Lewy body dementia is perhaps the visual delusions experienced by the patients. In fact, when people experience this symptom, it is often considered to be the first sign of developing the disease.
The delusions experienced by patients suffering from Lewy body dementia are likely to vary from abstract forms or colors to tête-à-tête with the loved ones who have already died.
In people enduring Lewy body dementia, anomalous disc-shaped formations known as Lewy bodies develop in some areas of the brain that are associated with judgment and mobility.
The risks of developing the disease enhances with advancing age. However, it is believed that this form of dementia roughly develop in a very small number of people.
Precisely speaking, Lewy body dementia (LBD) actually affects below one per cent of the populace above the age of 65 years.
The signs and symptoms appear very late in the patient's life, after they are approximately 65 years of age, and may vary from one patient to another. The most common signs and symptoms of the disease are mentioned below.
Cerebral or reasoning problems
There may be occasions when people enduring Lewy body dementia will have symptoms resembling those associated with Alzheimer's disease, such as confusion, loss of memory and inability to concentrate or poor attentiveness.
Disorderly movements
People suffering from Lewy body dementia may often endure symptoms common to Parkinson's disease, such as sluggish movement, firm muscles, shudders or a hobbled walk.
Delusions
Lewy body dementia patients may suffer from conditions where they are likely to have false perceptions regarding other persons or any situation.
Visual illusions
Patients suffering from Lewy body dementia (LBD) may often see colors, forms, animals and people that may not actually exist before them. In fact, visual hallucinations are considered to be the first signs of developing LBD.
Sleep disorders or sleeplessness
People suffering from Lewy body dementia may suffer from sleep disorders which may actually lead them to physically enact their dreams while they are asleep.
It is regrettable to note that till date there is no specific cure for Lewy body dementia and most of the treatments for this disease include medications used to cure Parkinson's disease and/ or Alzheimer's disease.
In fact, the known treatments of LBD are intended to regulate the symptoms of Parkinson's disease found in some LBD patients as well as the psychiatric symptoms of the disease.
It may be mentioned here that occasionally, Lewy body dementia patients response remarkably to the treatment using drugs meant for healing Parkinson's disease and/ or cholinesterase inhibitors like the ones used to treat Alzheimer's disease.
A number of researches conducted on LBD have hinted that using neuroleptic drugs like clozapine and olanzapine may also prove to be useful in lessening the psychiatric symptoms of this malady.
However, the problem is that administering neuroleptic drugs to patients suffering from Lewy body dementia may result in grave adverse after-effects.
Hence, it is advisable that LBD patients ought to first try other forms of therapies before using neuroleptic drugs. And In case it is essential to use the neuroleptic drugs, the patients need to be examined strictly.
It has been observed that the anomalous disc-shaped formations known as Lewy bodies are often present in people enduring Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Such findings by researchers imply that Lewy body dementia is closely associated to the other aspects that cause dementia or the fact that this disorder occasionally exists along with Parkinson's disease and/ or Alzheimer's disease in some patients.
The cerebral disorder Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), occasionally also referred to as frontal lobe dementia, denotes a collection of ailment that are distinguished by deterioration of the nerve cells, particularly the nerve cells located in the frontal and temporal hemisphere of the brain.
Dissimilar to Alzheimer's disease, FTD generally does not comprise build-up of amyloid plagues (muggy clusters or patches of protein found enclosed by the remains of dying nerve cells in the brain).
Many patients suffering from Frontotemporal dementia have an anomalous variety of tau protein in the brain that builds up into neurofibrillary tangles.
The formation of the neurofibrillary tangles interrupts the usual activities of the nerve cells and often results in their death.
According to medical professionals, Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) comprises around two to ten per cent of all incidents of dementia.
Normally, the symptoms of FTD are first noticed when the patients is in the age group of 40 and 65 years.
It has been found that many people suffering from the disease had a history of FTD in their family and this suggests that a potent genetic aspect may be responsible for the occurrence of the ailment.
It has also been found that the period for which an individual endures FTD differs from one patient to another.
While the condition of some patients deteriorates rapidly within a period of two to three years, in many others the symptoms show minimum change for numerous years. However, in general, people enduring FTD survive for a maximum period of five to 10 years after they have been diagnosed with the disease.
The fact that the formations present in the frontal and temporal sections of the brain play a crucial role in regulating our thoughts and social behaviour, FTD patients usually face difficulty in keeping up with the usual social communication as well as pursuing the norms of the society.
It is likely that the FTD patients may resort to theft or display ill-mannered and socially improper manners and may even ignore their regular duties.
Patients suffering from Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may also endure loss of verbal communication and language; show obsessive or monotonous actions; have an augmented craving for food as well as motor troubles like stiffness and inability to maintain the balance of their body.
Many patients may also suffer loss of memory, but this symptom usually occurs at a later stage of the malady.
One form of Frontotemporal dementia is known as Pick's disease. In this case specific nerve cells turn anomalous and puff up before they expire. In fact, these swollen neurons are the characteristics of the Pick's disease.
People enduring the Pick's disease also have anomalous formations in their brain that are known as Pick's bodies.
To a great extent, the Pick's bodies are usually made up of the protein called tau inside the neurons or nerve cells.
Although scientists are yet to find the reason that leads to the Pick's disease, they have discovered that the ailment runs in a number of families and say that to some extent, this is possibly owing to a flawed gene or a number of defective genes.
Normally, an individual develops the Pick's disease after he or she turns 50 years old. This disease alters the personality as well as behaviour of the patients and these symptoms deteriorate with the passage of time.
It may be noted here that many of the signs and symptoms of the Pick's disease resemble the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, such as improper social conduct, language problems, loss of mental suppleness, problems in concentration or lack of attentiveness and lack of judgment or thinking.
Till date, there is no medication that is effective enough to inhibit the progress of the Pick's disease and stop or slow down the deterioration of the nerve cells.
Nevertheless, some medications have found to be useful in lessening the onslaught of this disease as well as alleviating some symptoms like behavioural problems. In addition, there are medications that help to treat depression - a significant symptom of the Pick's disease.
Scientists have discovered that in a number of instances, the familial or hereditary Frontotemporal dementia is related to transformations in the tau gene.
This malady, known as FTD along with Parkinson's disease is related to chromosome 17 (briefly denoted as FTDP-17).
This condition is quite similar to the other forms of FTD, but frequently comprises psychiatric symptoms like delusions and hallucinations or figment of imagination.
Yet another form of Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is known as primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and this disease may strike people at a relatively early age of 40 years.
It may be mentioned here that the term 'aphasia' is commonly used to denote discrepancy in language functioning - including speech or speaking, comprehending what others are speaking as well as naming or identifying different familiar articles or things.
Patients suffering from PPA may experience impairment of one or more of the above mentioned functions. The symptoms of this type of FTD start little by little and develop gradually for a considerably long period, which, at times, may be several years.
As the primary progressive aphasia (PPA) advances, patients may experience loss of memory as well as lack of attentiveness.
Some patients may also display personality and behaviour transformations at a later stage of the disease. It is important to note here that majority of the patients enduring PPA, but not every one of them, may ultimately develop the signs of dementia.
The initial cerebral symptoms of Huntington's disease generally include trivial changes in the personality of the patient - anxiety, irritability and depression, and later developing into an acute case of dementia.
A number of people enduring Huntington's disease also display mentally deranged actions.
Huntington's disease also results in chorea (uncontrolled jerky sporadic movements of the limbs, trunk, and facial muscles) as well as debility of the muscles, gaucheness and problems in walking.
The disorder called HIV-associated dementia (HAD) is caused due to contagion by human immunodeficiency virus that is responsible for AIDS.
This is a critical condition whereby the white matter in the brain is extensively damaged by the disease. In due course, HAD results in a form of dementia whose symptoms usually comprise cerebral damage, lack of concern, withdrawal from the society as well as problems in concentration or absence or attentiveness.
In addition, people suffering from this malady usually also have difficulties in movement. While there is no particular remedy for HAD yet, medications used to treat AIDS may help to holdup the initiation of the disease and also somewhat alleviate the symptoms.
Flawed gene for a protein known as huntingtin is said to be responsible for Huntington's disease (HD), which is said to be a heritable malady.
It has been seen that as many as 50 per cent children of people suffering from Huntington's disease are likely to inherit the disorder. This malady results in the deterioration of several parts of the brain as well as the spinal cord.
Generally, the signs of this disease first begin to appear when the patients are in their 30s or 40s. Once an individual has been diagnosed of suffering from Huntington's disease, he or she has a maximum remaining lifespan of 15 years.
As the name suggests, dementia pugilistica is generally attributable to head shocks similar to what is endured by people who sustained several blows several times in the head while engaging in the sport of boxing.
This type of nervous disorder is also known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (brain ailment) or the Boxer's syndrome.
The most widespread signs of this condition include dementia as well as Parkinson's disease. It is important to note that this traumatic condition may even emerge several years after the pain ends.
People inflicted by dementia pugilistica are also likely to suffer from worsened synchronization of activities as well as garbled speech.
Incidentally, even a solitary painful injury of the brain may also result in a condition known as post-traumatic dementia (PTD).
Post-traumatic dementia is similar to dementia pugilistica, however, it also comprises enduring memory or cerebral troubles. The other signs of this condition (PTD) depend on the precise region of the brain that was harmed by the injury.
Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is a disorder wherein the condition of the patient continues to deteriorate gradually. This malady is distinguished by loss of nerve cells and deterioration of several regions of the brain.
It has been found the nerve cells in the brain of people suffering from corticobasal degeneration usually have anomalous build-up of the protein tau.
Generally, this disorder advances little by little over a period of six to eight years. The symptoms of CBD generally first become noticeable when the patient is approximately 60 years old.
Usually, the symptoms first appear on one side of the body and ultimately have an effect on both sides. Some symptoms of CBD are similar to those of Parkinson's disease.
For instance, poor synchronization of the physical movements with the brain and firmness are common in both the maladies.
In addition, people suffering from corticobasal degeneration may also experience symptoms, such as loss of memory, visual-spatial troubles (also known as visuospatial problems), dementia, apraxia (inability to make common and focused movements), difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia), slurry and stumbling speech and myoclonus (uncontrolled shuddering of the muscles).
People suffering from CBD often die due to pneumonia or other resultant problems including pulmonary embolism (clotting of blood in the lungs) and/ or sepsis (acute blood infection).
It is unfortunate that till date there is no precise remedy for corticobasal degeneration. However, some medications may be somewhat effective in alleviating certain symptoms of this malady, but not all can be cured.
For instance, medications like clonazepam will possibly be useful in treating myoclonus (involuntary muscular jerks), while professional, physical and speech therapy may prove to be effective in dealing with some of the debilities related to this ailment.
In fact, it has been noticed that the symptoms of CBD usually don't react to the medications used to treat Parkinson's disease or other medications.
This type of brain disorder is very uncommon, but fatal and affects approximately one person in a million people each year globally.
The symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, also called CJD in brief, generally start becoming noticeable in patients above 60 years of age and majority of the patients affected by this brain malady succumb to it within a year of diagnosis.
It has been found that majority of the incidences of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease takes place once in a while and in most cases the patients do not usually have any prior risk factors that may result in the deadly and rare disease.
Many researchers are of the view that this particular brain disorder is caused by an anomalous type of a protein known as prion.
Although Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is considered to be a very rare disease that occurs sporadically and often to people having no risk factor of the malady, it has been found that approximately five to ten per cent of the CJD cases in the United States are inherited.
In such cases, the disease is passed from one generation to another owing to a change in the gene of the protein called prion.
It is interesting to note that this disease may also be acquired in exceptional cases. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is generally acquired when there is an exposure to an affected brain or the tissues of the nervous system by means of specific medical processes.
However, scientists are yet to find any proof that would suggest that the malady is infectious either through the air or by means of coming into careless contact with any person suffering from the ailment.
Initially, patients enduring this rare, but fatal brain disorder suffer from problems like absence of muscular synchronization, changes in personality counting damaged memory, perceptiveness and thinking.
Such patients may even experience harmed eyesight. The symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may also comprise dejection and sleeplessness.
With the advancement of the malady, the cerebral damage of the patients becomes acute. Most of the patients also suffer from myoclonus (a sudden spasm or jerk of a muscle or collection of muscles) and lose their eyesight.
In the final stages of the disease, the patients suffer from immobility as well as verbal communication and ultimately go into a stage of coma. These patients may also develop pneumonia and other contagions which may facilitate their death.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a part of the family of the human and animal ailments classified as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).
In other words, TSEs are different forms of encephalopathies distinguished by spongy deterioration of the brain tissue and said to be caused by the ingestion of a venomous protein or virus.
The term spongiform denotes the typical appearance of diseased brain that is filled with holes till the time they appear like sponges when seen under a microscope.
Among the different forms of TSEs, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is most widespread. The other forms of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies include the Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker (GSS) disease and the fatal familial insomnia.
It may be noted that some years ago, scientists have detected a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, known as variant CJD (vCJD in brief), in several regions of the United Kingdom as well as in different European nations.
The preliminary signs of vCJD differ from those of the typical CJD. Besides, unlike in the case of the classic CJD when the first symptoms of the disease become noticeable only after the patient is 60 years old, in the instance of vCJD, the disease crops up in younger people.
Several studies conducted on the subject hints that variant CJD may be caused due to the consumption of beef obtained from cattle suffering from a TSE ailment known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
This condition is also denoted as the 'mad cow disease'.
In addition to the different forms of dementia discussed above, the other uncommon varieties of dementia that is heritable comprise the familial British dementia, fatal familial insomnia, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker (GSS) disease and the familial Danish dementia.
Characteristically, people suffering from the GSS disease experience symptoms like ataxia (loss of synchronization of muscle movements) and progressive dementia and they are first visible when an individual is aged between 50 years and 60 years.
In this case, the patient may live with the malady for a number of years before succumbing to it.
The familial Danish dementia and familial British dementia have been associated to dissimilar flaws in a gene present in chromosome 13. The symptoms of both these ailments are similar and they include paralysis, progressive dementia and loss of balance.
On the other hand, fatal familial insomnia results in deterioration of the area of the brain called the thalamus.
The thalamus is partly involved in regulating our sleep. This disorder results in a gradual increase in insomnia or sleeplessness and that ultimately makes an individual to finally lose his or her aptitude to sleep.
In addition, people enduring fatal familial insomnia may also experience dementia, reduced reactions and/ or figments of the imagination and ultimately be in a state of coma.
Generally, this fatal disease claims its victim within a period between seven to 13 months, but some may even survive for a longer period.
While there is still no precise treatment available for dementia or the symptoms of the cerebral disorder, researches have demonstrated that one or two herbs are useful in alleviating some of the symptoms of the malady.
In fact, the aromatic herb ginkgo biloba and an herbal extract called Vinpocetine have displayed the possibility of having a positive effect in augmenting memory among the elderly people.
In fact, a methodical appraisal of all the studies undertaken till 2002 established that the use of ginkgo provided some evidence and hope that the herb is useful in enhancing the cerebral and other functions in dementia patients.
Nevertheless, findings of three studies undertaken randomly on gingko could not verify the positive results of the herb in treating cerebral damage in dementia patients that was established by the earlier researches.
However, one of these randomized studies demonstrated that ginkgo was somewhat effective in improving the conditions of patients who were not detected as suffering from dementia.
All said and done, it is generally believed that ginkgo biloba will possibly be helpful in preventing dementia. On the other hand, studies on the Vinpocetine, which is extracted from a herb called periwinkle, is hopeful, but in a very nascent stage.
