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Alzheimer’s is a disease of the brain where there are problems with memory, power of thinking and behavioral pattern. The symptoms usually develop very slowly and later become severe to affect our lives completely.
Alzheimer Treatments
The treatment of Alzheimer includes identifying the core areas that have got affected and treating them accordingly. There are many methods of identifying the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Medications for Cognitive Symptoms
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have found two types of normal medications to be good:
- Cholinesterase inhibitors : This medication enhances the communication between the nerve cells by keeping the chemical acetylcholine high. It helps in delaying the symptoms of Alzheimer’s for some time like a year. This could be given in doses such that it treats the illness completely or mildly and moderately.
- Meantime : This regulates the glutamate level. This is also a chemical that acts as a messenger. This is related to learning and memory. It delays the symptoms of the illness temporarily. It is similar to cholinesterase treatment.
These drugs influence the actions of the chemicals carrying messages in between the brain’s nerve cells. These drugs have a utility value for a short time. Sometimes the doctors give both the medicines together
Sometimes Vitamin E is prescribed on a high dose for a cognitive change in the treatment of Alzheimer disease. This acts as an antioxidant. Vitamin E helps in protection of brain cells and all other tissues in the body from wear and tear. It has been seen that in Alzheimer disease, the person reaches a stage sometimes where he is not even able to carry on certain daily activities. This is the time that vitamin E doses are given in a higher degree. Sometimes, it is seen that the high vitamin doses are fatal and cause a heart attack.
Behavioral And Psychiatric Symptoms
Alzheimer’s disease is often the reason that people act the way they do, and it affects their behavioral pattern and social interactions. The families find this very distressing and there are treatments which deal with the behavioral and psychiatric aspects in mind.
While treating the behavioral aspects of the treatment, the points that are considered are the person’s mood, his anger, emotional outbursts and distress, physical expressions, restlessness, hallucinations, and delusions.
It has been observed that the treatments are also based on the triggers that cause the illness. These triggers could include any event or changes in the environment the person lives in and the role they play in triggering the illness. Human mind basically refuses to accept change easily and therefore the treatment for Alzheimer becomes all the more difficult. The fear and the fatigue factor increases and the person really gets tired of understanding all this. The concerned Alzheimer treatments are based on solving all these small important aspects.
The following things could be done to treat this kind of discomfort:
- Monitoring : Personal comfort could be monitored and pain, hunger, thirst, constipation and full bladder could be taken care of thus avoiding future problems.
- Avoidance of confrontation : It is not advisable to have arguments and confrontations with such people as they get very agitated with these and this often proves to be a trigger for the illness.
- Redirecting attention : It is better to be understanding, tolerant and supportive with these people.
- Calm atmosphere : The calmer the environment, the better these people are. It is good to avoid sound, a lot of light, and confusion. Distractions like television should also be avoided.
- Rest : The person should be asked to take sufficient rest.
- Lock the doors : Often it is seen that these patients have a tendency to run away from closed doors. So it is advisable to lock the gates and doors well.
- Guns : It is very dangerous to have weapons like knives, guns in front of these people as it aggravates their insecurity and they could land up doing something drastic.
Medications For Behavioral Symptoms
Introducing medications itself is most effective when they are combined with other non drug treatments too. The following points can be kept in mind with regard to medications:
The following general principles can help guide appropriate use of medications:
- Knowledge of the risks involved : It is better to know the risks and benefits of a particular medication before taking any decision regarding treatment.
- Knowledge of a specific symptom : If one symptom is treated then it helps to relieve the discomfort caused.
