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Asked by Caitlinxxx to Ed - Mental Health Nurse on 5 Feb 2019.
Question: how does dementia start
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Ed Freshwater answered on 5 Feb 2019:
There’s not a simple answer to that, but some useful information here: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/types-dementia
Comments
Psychiatry Ward Team commented on :
Emma here 🙂
The most common form is Alzheimer’s Dementia. Sometimes patients and their families will notice that patients are a bit more forgetful, such as repeating conversations, or poor short term memory. There are other symptoms too, but in my experience it is often the memory that people notice first, and in Alzheimer’s it tends to be a gradual worsening of memory. Having said that, everyone is different and there may be other things noticed first, such as poor concentration, or difficulty with something like making a cup of tea.
There are other forms of dementia too, such as vascular dementia, where the memory problems can be more sudden.
The resource Ed mentioned is great – have a look at the Factsheets on that Alzheimer’s Society website (they work with all forms of dementia not just Alzheimers) as they are really comprehensive.