Tuesday, February 24, 2009

LPOD - early symptoms of Alzheimer's

Apparently the early symptoms of Alzheimer's are as follows:

  • Memory loss, in particular short-term memory
  • Difficulty performing familiar tasks such as getting dressed or preparing a meal
  • Language problems, such as forgetting simple words or an increasing tendency toward malapropism
  • Disorientation such as getting lost in familiar places, or forgetting where you are and how you got there, possibly confusing night and day
  • Poor/decreased judgement, such as wearing the wrong sort of clothing for the weather
  • Problems keeping track of things, such as being unable to follow a conversation or keep up paying bills
  • Misplacing things, such as putting things in inappropriate places (e.g. spectacles in the fridge)
  • Changes in mood/behaviour, showing more or less emotion than was previously the case, and experiencing inexplicable mood swings
  • Personality changes, such as seeming different from your 'usual self' in small, often indefinable ways - perhaps becoming irritable, suspicious, anxious, apathetic, etc.
  • Loss of initiative, perhaps sitting for hours in front of the telly and shwoing no interest in normal hobbies and pastimes
Many of these symptoms can also be attributed to other, temporary causes, including stress, medication and hormonal fluctuation.

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