COURSEWORK } Unit 17 – Caring for individuals with dementia
(Learning Aim A: Examine the types, causes and symptoms of dementia)
Dementia refers to a variety of different types of memory loss and difficulties with cognitive
function. The four most common types of dementia are Alzheimer’s, Lewy Body Dementia,
Vascular Dementia and Frontotemporal dementia. Dementia affects mainly those aged 65
and older and 1 in 14 of this age group suffer from the condition. The likelihood of
developing dementia has shown to increase with age, although younger people can suffer
from it too. Those who suffer with dementia will have all areas of their lives changed
gradually. With those suffering from dementia, they will be affected the most physically,
although they can greatly be affected intellectually, emotionally and socially as well.
Dementia stems physically within those suffering from it while all the other ways are an
extension of being physically affected.
P1 Explain the causes of three different types of dementia
P2 Explain symptoms of three different types of dementia
M1 Analyse how the different types of dementia might be identified by their symptoms
Frontotemporal Dementia
There are many factors that can be considered the causes for dementia, the loss of memory,
although, these three different types of dementia (LBD, FTD and ALZ) have rather similar
causes which affect individuals. The first type of dementia is called Frontotemporal
dementia which is a term used to describe a number of disorders that affect the frontal and
temporal lobes of the brain. These lobes are important as they control the language,
behaviour and ability to plan and organise which most people do everyday. And Because
these areas are associated with personality, behaviour, and language, frontotemporal
dementia can drastically change the way a person speaks and acts. It occurs when the brain
has clumps of abnormal protein forming inside of its brain cells. These lumps that affect the
frontal and temporal lobes will end up damaging the brains’ cells and prevent them from
working properly – which help the brain do its job of memory. It is not fully understood as to
why or how this disease could be passed on, however, it has been recorded that around 1 in
8 people who suffer from frontotemporal dementia will have relatives that were also
affected by the condition.
Frontotemporal dementia usually causes changes in behaviour or language patterns in the
first stages of dementia. These come on gradually and will get worse slowly over time.
Eventually, most people suffering from frontotemporal dementia will experience problems
in both of these areas. Some people also develop physical problems and difficulties with
their mental abilities. The symptoms for frontotemporal dementia include changes in
someone’s behaviour and personality, language problems, problems with mental abilities
and physical problems.
{ Behavioural and Personality changes } Behavioural and personality changes can branch
into a number of different actions depending on the person suffering from dementia,
including, being insensitive or rude, acting impulsively or rashly, losing interest in people
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,and things, losing drive and motivation, repetitive behaviours, such as humming, hand-
rubbing and foot-tapping, or routines such as walking exactly the same route repetitively, a
change in food preferences, such as suddenly liking sweet foods, and poor table manners,
compulsive eating, alcohol drinking and/or smoking and neglecting personal hygiene.
The reasons for acting rude, blunt or insensitive towards others when suffering from the
early stages of frontotemporal dementia can be because when forgetting something
repetitively or from time to time, the individual can become frustrated with themselves for
not remembering what they want to remember so badly. This will lead them to take their
frustration or anger out on others, most likely those close to them such as friends or family,
without realising their actions and then returning to their usual selves. Reasons those
suffering with dementia may start to lose interest in people or things around them or losing
drive and motivation is because their memory loss can make them feel unbothered by
important things and cause them to act somewhat childlike where they are careless and
sarcastic towards things they would usually pay a lot more attention to. This can also be
related to a change in food preferences, compulsive eating and poor table manners.
With memory loss, individuals can sometimes forget what is and isn’t very good for them,
what is and isn’t healthy etc. They can end up acting out, in ways where they change their
diet greatly and overeating, often leading to weight gain. With repetitive behaviours, such as
humming, hand-rubbing and foot-tapping, or routines such as walking exactly the
same route repetitively it is often that individuals suffering with dementia will do actions
such as these to ease themselves in a situation where they may have forgotten something
and don’t know how to resolve it. However, memory problems as a whole will only tend to
occur later on, unlike more common forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease. As the
condition progresses, people with frontotemporal dementia may become socially isolated
and withdrawn.
{ Language Problems } Other symptoms may include language problems, such as using
words incorrectly (for example, calling a cat a dog), a loss of vocabulary, forgetting the
meaning of common words, getting words in the wrong order, repeating a limited number
of phrases, slow, hesitant speech, difficulty making the right sounds to say words and
automatically repeating things other people have said. Some people will gradually lose the
ability to speak and can eventually become completely mute.
{ Problems with mental abilities } Problems with thinking do not tend to occur in the early
stages of frontotemporal dementia, but these often develop as the condition progresses.
These can include, difficulty working things out and needing to be told what to do, poor
planning, judgement and organisation, becoming easily distracted, thinking in a rigid and
inflexible way, losing the ability to understand abstract ideas, difficulty recognising familiar
people or objects and memory difficulties, although this is not common early on.
{ Physical problems } In the later stages, some people with frontotemporal dementia
develop physical problems and difficulties with movement. These can include, slow, stiff
movements, similar to Parkinson's disease, difficulty swallowing and the loss of bowel and
bladder control. Some people with frontotemporal dementia also have other neurological
problems overlapping it. These problems consist of Motor neurone disease – causing
weakness, usually muscle wasting, Corticobasal degeneration – causes problems controlling
limbs, loss of balance and coordination, slowness and reduced mobility and Progressive
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, supranuclear palsy – causes problems with balance, movement, eye movements and
swallowing.
The Progression of FTD is often separated into stages which allows doctors to analyse the
progression of the disease as it gets worse and be able to know how to help the victims and
when. The different symptoms discovered at different stages will also allow the doctor
caring for the patient to identify exactly which type of dementia the victim is suffering from.
1. Early Stage Frontotemporal Dementia - Unlike Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia,
which commonly affect memory and cognitive function, memory may be completely
unaffected in frontotemporal dementia. While there are several subtypes of Frontotemporal
dementia, many in the early stage will exhibit behavioural changes that can cause them to
appear to be unusually uncaring and selfish. They may also behave more abruptly than
usual, lose their inhibitions, or develop a sudden affinity for sweet foods and overeating.
2. Mid Stage Frontotemporal Dementia - As Frontotemporal dementia symptoms progress,
they tend to become more consistent. In many cases, people living with the behavioural
variant of frontotemporal dementia will also develop symptoms of the language variants in
this stage. Generally, it is difficult for a person to recognize these symptoms on their own;
usually the people around them are better able to distinguish the behavioural and language
changes that develop in the early and mid-stages of Frontotemporal Dementia.
3. Late Stage Frontotemporal Dementia - In the late stages of Frontotemporal Dementia,
symptoms become closer to those of Alzheimer’s disease. While behavioural changes and
language problems may develop early, memory loss generally does not occur until the late
stages. In the late stages of all types of dementia, it can be difficult to discern one type from
the others as symptoms become much more consistent. Because early stages of FTD can be
difficult to recognize right away, many people living with late stage frontotemporal
dementia are misdiagnosed as having Alzheimer’s. After the onset of Frontotemporal
Dementia, the average person lives six to eight years, but the disease currently has no cure
and will eventually be fatal.
Diagnosing Frontotemporal dementia -
In comparison to other forms of dementia, frontotemporal dementia is often less common
and often has different early symptoms. This means it may be difficult for specialists to
diagnose FTD because they do not understand the symptoms as dementia.
Many behavioural or personality changes influenced by FTD may not be very noticeable at
first. These types of symptoms, such as risk-taking, lack of social or sexual inhibitions, or
obsessive conduct, can often look more like a stressful or emotionally challenging time for
the person. Also, doctors can not expect to see dementia in someone too young if the
individual is under 65.
Even if behavioural changes are understood as medical signs, depression, schizophrenia or
obsessive-compulsive disorder can be mistaken for them. Language or movement disorders
can also be misdiagnosed.
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