Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease, like many other forms of dementia, can be hard to recognize in an aging adult because the symptoms are very relative to the individual's past mental state. Also, as a progressive disease, the changes in the behaviors can be slow enough to be hard to notice.

A lot of the symptoms listed below are ones that all people can have for short amounts of time or to a certain degree (especially occurring with advanced age). This also makes the line between early signs of Alzheimer's diseases and the normal aging process even harder to discern. 

One of the first signs of Alzheimer's disease is memory loss. This can be hard to determine because everyone occasionally forgets the name of a restaurant they recently tried or some of the items on a long shopping list they left at home. With Alzheimer's however, the memory loss is more severe and debilitating. In the early stages, newly learned information is easily forgotten. Also, once a person with Alzheimer's forgets this information, it usually isn't remembered later. Normal daily function is impaired by forgetting important dates or tasks. A person with Alzheimer's disease may heavily rely on memory aides (such as Post-It notes or alarms) and may also ask the same questions over and over again. The person becomes more dependent on family members and friends to help organize and navigate effectively through life.

People with Alzheimer's disease may also have difficulty with solving problems or making effective plans. Especially, these patients may notice having a harder time working with numbers (making lists, recipes, or tracking bills). This is usually relative and the deficit occurs in comparison to the person's previous abilities. 

Going hard in hand with number, patients with Alzheimer's disease also become easily confused with time or location. They can forget where they are or how they got there. The passage of time itself is sometimes hard to comprehend. This is different from occasionally having trouble with remembering the day of the week.

Alzheimer's disease also affects a person's ability to understand and interpret images and spatial orientations, as well as the ability to converse and string together words. This then leads to difficulty in reading, depth perception, and color determination. All of these symptoms greatly impede a person's ability to stay independent and perform daily activities.

Finally, changes in personality and withdrawal from social and work activities may also be a sign of Alzheimer's disease. Increased confusion, suspicion, depression, fear or anxiety could be a sign of Alzheimer's disease. People with Alzheimer's may also show decreased or poor judgment, such as frivolous spending or bad personal hygiene. 

All in all, the symptoms of Alzheimer's are quite relative, but they all work to impede the patient's ability to live independently. 

Source:

Know the 10 Signs - Early Detection Matters. (2009). Retrieved February 7, 2015, from http://www.alz.org/national/documents/checklist_10signs.pdf