By Yesim Sert Karaaslan
ANKARA (AA) - A Turkish scientist found out that Alzheimer is the most common dementia type, according to his research on individuals who suffers from dementia.
“We have conducted a research on patients, who are regularly treated at our policlinic for dementia,” Mehmet Ilkin Naharci told Anadolu Agency ahead of Sept. 21 World Alzheimer’s Day.
“In our research, we found out that Alzheimer is the most common type among the dementia and these patients live an average of four years or 12 years after the diagnosis,” Naharci said, adding that Alzheimer tops the dementia types which manifest itself with impairment of cognitive skills.
He said dementia occurs with aging and it is a progressive brain disease that causes various mental and behavioral disorders, especially forgetfulness.
Among the symptoms of the disease are learning disability, speech disorder, forgetting location of house, not being able to recognize people, indetermination and uneasiness, indifference, aggression, sleep disorder, hallucination and depression, Naharci said.
He noted Alzheimer is not a contagious or genetic disease. However, he added that there might be a slight level of family predisposition.
The researcher said among the risk factors are smoking and consuming alcohol, hypertension, diabetes, vessel stiffness, skull fracture, depression, low socioeconomic and education level.
In early stage of the disease, the individual suffers forgetfulness, losing objects and dejection, he said.
Naharci said in the middle stage, patients cannot recognize people, need help in cleaning themselves, dressing, loses their way, suffer from speech disorder, hallucination and depression.
In further stages, the individual cannot recognize family members, has difficulty in eating and walking, becomes bedbound and suffers from incontinence.
Naharci noted that care for these people is of great importance and said: “The patient’s sufferings can be reduced by appropriate and accurate care.”
He also said the result of the research is published on Indian Journal of Palliative Care as a scientific article.
*Writing by Sena Guler