Question

Neurologic Disorders Case Study 61 Class/Group Name Date Group Members Scenario M.E. is a 66-year-old woman who has a 2-year history of progressive forgetfulness. After a neurologic eval- uation, M.E. was diagnosed as having Alzheimer disease (AD). She is no longer able to care for herself ha become increasingly depressed and paranoid, and recently started a fire in the kitchen. Her husband and children have come to the Alzheimer unit at your extended care facility to seek information about AD and discuss the possibility of placement for M.E. You assure the family that you have experience dealing with the questions and concerns of most people in their situation.

Answer 1

1. Alzheimer's disease also known as senile dementia is a progressive disease. It destroys the memory of the person as well as their other important mental functions.

Here the brain cells connecting eachother as well as the cells itself degenerates and eventually die causing the person to loose their memory as well as other important mental functions.

We should also inform the patients family that Alzheimer's is an irreversible disease which slowly destroys memory and thinking ability and eventually the daily simplest task.

2. According to the patient's husband there has not been any family history or genetic history of the Alzheimer's in the patient's family.

Here we have to assure the husband saying that Alzheimer's is a disorder which does not depend on the heredity or family history. Alzheimer's is caused by the eventual brain cell death. It is also called as neurodegenerative disease which means that the disease progresses along with the time. The person who is suffering from Alzheimer's has fewer and fewer nerve cells and connections and increases when the age increase. Hence there is no connection between the family history and the Alzheimer's disease.

3. There are mainly three categories of Alzheimer's disease. It is divided into stage. The signs and symptoms of people in each stage includes:

First stage (early stage) :

- memory loss

- poor judgement leading to bad decisions

- loss of spontaneity and sense of initiative

- taking longer time to complete normal daily tasks

- repeating questions

- trouble handling money and paying bills

- wandering and getting lost

- losing things or misplacing them in odd places

- mood and personality changes

- increased anxiety and aggression

Second stage (moderate stage):

- increase loss of memory as well as confusion

- not able to learn new things

- difficulty in dealing with the language and problem in reading, writing and calculations or numbers

- difficulty in thought organizations and logical thinking

- decrease in attention span

- coping difficulty in new situation

- multistep tasks are difficult to carry out such as wearing dresses

- cannot recognise the family and friends

- conditions such as paranoia, hallucinations and delusions are seen

- impulsive behaviour are shown such as opening dresses at inappropriate place, using vulgar language etc.

- outburst of anger inappropriately

- increased impulses, restlessness, agitation, anxiety, tearfulness, wandering etc.

- muscle twitching which occurs occasionally, repeated words or actions

Third stage (severe stage):

- decreased or unable to communicate

- loss of weight

- seizures

- infection over the skin

- dysphagia

- grunting, groaning and moaning

- increase in the sleep

- loss of control over bowel and bladder

And mostly the patients are diagnosed with Alzheimer's once they reach or enter the second stage of disease condition.