There are dozens of dementias - and this can be confusing.
In 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer presented a key paper to the meeting of the South West German Society of Alienists. In it he described the disease syndrome that now bears his name.
Today, Alzheimer’s Disease has become the common term most people use whenever they talk about any kind of dementias. In fact, the very term “Alzheimer’s” has become a catchall for any syndrome in which progressive cognitive dysfunction is the major manifestation.
However, there are dozens of other dementias including, to name just a few: Multi-Infarct Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Pick's Disease, Progressive Aphasia, Corticobasal Degeneration, Lewy Body Dementia, Senile Dementia, Binswanger’s Disease, Vascular Dementia, Parkinsonian, etc.
From a care giver’s point of view, it almost doesn’t matter which dementia is at hand. The perpetual grief and mourning felt by the care givers will be the same regardless of the specific process affecting his or her loved one.
My special interest is in Multi-Infarct Dementia because that is the one affecting my mother and the one I write about in my book: DEMENTIA DIARY: A Care Giver’s Journal.
Here is the way one physician described Multi-Infarct Dementia to me. It is caused by multiple strokes, some call them mini-strokes. The victim of this condition may not be, indeed usually is not, aware that anything out of the ordinary has occurred. Neither are his or her significant others.
Perhaps there is momentary weakness, headache, or dizziness, but nothing major. Over time, however, enough damage is done to the brain that symptoms begin to appear such as: confusion, impaired judgment, aphasia, irritability, depression, mood swings, inertia, significant memory loss, and a host of possible others. Not all symptoms are experienced by every sufferer, but sooner or later most of them may appear.
The symptoms of Multi-Infarct Dementia are not really all that different from Alzheimer’s or other dementias. I’ve been given to understand that these differences are subtle, hard to tell apart for a layman.
Health care professionals have explained that if one were to line up sufferers of each of the various dementias next to one another you could probably differentiate them—but that’s what it would take.
I should say that I am not a physician or a professional expert in these diseases. I am, by profession, a hospital administrator, so I am trained to understand the language of the clinicians. What I know comes from 15 years of watching my mother sink into her opaque world, plus 15 years of discussions with physicians providing her medical care.
If you. like me, are dealing with a dementia in a loved one, good luck and best wishes in your search for help and understanding.
About the Author
Robert Tell, Author of Dementia Diary, A Caregivers Journal, Published by RTP Press, 2006.
This poignant memoir tells with sensitivity and humor what it’s like to be the only child and long distance caregiver of a memory impaired and widowed parent who lives alone half a continent away. It is a portable support group for anyone trying to cope with and care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s Disease or another dementia. Excerpts can be found at the following website: Dementia Diary
Robert Tell is a writer who lives in Farmington Hills, Michigan, near his Mom’s nursing home. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and educated in Public Health and English at Columbia and Long Island Universities. He nourished his creative writing habit while working as a hospital administrator, health planning agency executive, health policy professor, and business owner. Bob’s poetry, columns, articles, and creative non-fiction have appeared in many periodicals.
