National Social Work Ebook Continuing Education

Types of Dementia Disease Parkinson’s disease (Ophey et al., 2021)

Symptoms

Attributes/Causation

• Poor executive function • Trouble walking • Unstable gait • Impaired responsiveness to visual cues • Speech impairment • Impaired affect/modified facial expression • Decreased eye blinking • Depression • Dementia • Insomnia • Rigidity/freezing • Shaking • AD traits: Memory loss, confusion, and language • Frontal lobe brain cell damage due to nerve damage • Diagnosis confirmed postmortem • Drastic change in behavior and personality • Aggression • Loss of speech • Loss of decision-making ability • Loss of sense of self-awareness • Will become completely dependent • Progressive dementia • Affects ability to think, reason, and process information • Impaired movement, mood, and behavior

• Basal ganglia cells die, causing dopamine levels to drop • Progressive, chronic disease • Personalized treatments for symptom relief • Exercise can improve symptoms and may protect the brain (Michael J. Fox Foundation, 2022) • No cure

Frontotemporal dementia (Alzheimer’s Association, n.d.)

• Frontal lobe controls language and personality • Also known as Pick’s disease • No cure

Lewy body dementia (LBD) (Johns Hopkins Medicine 2022)

• 1.4 million people living with this disease • Due to unusual deposits of alpha- synuclein protein on brain • Initial diagnosis may be mental/ psychological health • No cure • Caused by constriction or breakdown of blood vessels in and around the brain • Can be the result of a stroke(s) • Symptoms vary by location of actual constriction • Lifestyle factors (diet, lack of movement, smoking) contribute to disease progression • Disease can be allayed by exercise, diet, avoiding alcohol and smoking • Originally referred to as punch drunk syndrome • Caused by extensive hits to the head • Brain has tau protein similar to AD, but presents uniquely in CTE • Some symptoms can be addressed with medication • Diagnosed postmortem • No cure

• Parkinsonian-like rigidity • Hallucinations, paranoia

Vascular dementia (Mayo Clinic, 2022)

• Problems with reasoning • Impacted judgement, memory, and other thought processes

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) (JNaraparaddy, 2018)

• Extreme dementia • Memory loss, confusion • Mood disorder • Personality changes, rage • Can present in mid-life • Person becomes erratic and unpredictable

Book Code: SWUS1525

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