Dementia (Nursing)

00:01 Let's think about Jai a little bit differently. Okay? Still Jai, comes in.

00:07 And when Jai comes in, the partner says, "Please help us! Lately Jai has not been in his old self.

00:15 He used to read all of the time.

00:18 And now for the past few months, he can't even find his glasses.

00:23 And the books. The books, even if he starts finding them, he loses interest so quickly.

00:31 He sometimes even says, that he doesn't understand the words in the sentences." The partner continues to tell you that he hasn't really been doing the kind of things he used to be doing.

00:45 For example, he's forgetting to walk the dog.

00:48 And sometimes when he does walk the dog, he kind of gets lost on his way back.

00:54 It takes him so long.

00:56 And that's just around the neighborhood.

00:59 You know, he's always been a little forgetful.

01:01 But the past few months, well, I'm afraid now to even go to work.

01:08 Like, maybe he's going to go to turn on a stove or something and forget to turn it off, and our whole house is going to burn down.

01:17 Were just so worried.

01:20 So, you can see, this is a very different presentation in delirium.

01:25 This is a slow onset.

01:27 This is a forgetfulness that is increasing that's getting bigger as Jai gets older.

01:35 And it's impacting their lives in such a way that Jai's partner now is almost afraid to go to the store or go to work, for fear that something is going to go wrong in the house.

01:48 Dementia is a collection of symptoms, reflecting a decline in cognitive functioning.

01:54 Dementia can be caused by many different diseases that affect the brain.

01:59 So it's important to remember, dementia itself is not a disease.

02:06 There is primary and secondary dementia.

02:10 Primary dementia is irreversible, it is progressive, and it is not caused by another disease.

02:21 So it's not secondary to any other diseases.

02:26 Whereas, if we're thinking about what a primary dementia would be, we might think about Alzheimer's disease.

02:36 So the dementia that we see in Alzheimer's disease is primary because it is the Alzheimer's disease itself that is causing that dementia.

02:47 Secondary dementia, it results from some other pathological process.

02:54 So it might be due to substance use and substance misuse.

03:00 It might be due to traumatic brain injuries or perhaps a tumor.

03:07 We also have AIDS related dementia.

03:10 So any other disease process that is now causing deterioration of the brain is considered the secondary dementia.

03:22 So what are some of the diseases that cause dementia? As we mentioned, Alzheimer's disease is a primary cause of dementia.

03:32 We also have vascular dementia, where the blood is not reaching all parts of the brain.

03:40 We have Lewy body dementia, and Frontotemporal dementia.

03:48 We have Huntington's disease.

03:51 And we also have the Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease.

03:55 When we're thinking about these diseases, each one of them can cause dementia.

04:02 And at least 44 million people worldwide are living with dementia.

04:09 And it's anticipated that more than 75 million people are going to have Alzheimer's disease by the year 2030.