Senile Dementia

What is the Definition of Dementia?

Senile dementia is one of the various forms of dementia, primarily affecting elderly individuals. Unfortunately, both senile and pre-senile degenerative dementias, which typically affect those over 60 years of age, are incurable conditions.

What is the Definition of Dementia?

Dementia is a progressive and global mental deterioration caused by an organic disorder of the central nervous system. It impacts all mental faculties, affecting the patient's emotions, activities, and social behavior.

• Its progression is gradual but irreversible.

• The patient's field of consciousness narrows, attention becomes deficient, and concentration weakens.

• Alongside intelligence, emotions, mood, and moral values are also affected.

• This can explain certain criminal acts such as shoplifting or indecent exposure.

• Childish behaviors may emerge, including:

• Collecting useless items.

• Fabricating stories or lies.

• Emotional instability is characterized by rapid and spontaneous changes in mood, such as sadness, irritability, or impulsiveness.

How to Recognize Senile Dementia?

Senile dementia presents several types of symptoms:

• Language disturbances.

• Attention and concentration difficulties.

• Perception issues.

• Memory problems.

These symptoms are progressive, gradually leading to a complete loss of autonomy accompanied by depression, character changes, chronic delusions of persecution, and intellectual decline. There are also orientation difficulties and impaired judgment. At this stage, it is advisable to conduct an electroencephalogram followed by a CT scan to detect brain atrophy. The initial memory impairment often leads to the reliving of childhood memories or even wandering behavior. Behavioral problems are diverse and indicate a lack of self-critique, including self-neglect, illogical actions, sleep disturbances, and disrupted eating habits. Intellectual deficits, which are central to dementia, will manifest as a global impairment. Basic mental operations like reading and calculation may be preserved initially, but the thought process will deteriorate rapidly. Eventually, antisocial behaviors will lead to social isolation. These may be accompanied by personality disturbances, delusional ideas with hallucinatory experiences, and neurological or cardiovascular complications.