It’s estimated almost half a million Australians live with dementia.
Unless a medical breakthrough is made, that number is expected to increase to more than 812,500 in the next 30 years.
What’s more, most people admit they know very little about the condition — some even believe it to be a normal part of ageing.
Dementia Australia CEO Tanya Buchanan said it was “incredibly disappointing” that had failed to shift in a decade.
“It is … profoundly concerning that more people now think dementia is a normal part of ageing than they did a decade ago. Dementia is not a normal part of ageing,” she said.
As Australia marks Dementia Action Week, the organisation says the lack of community awareness is contributing to discrimination against those with the condition.
So, what are the signs of dementia and how is it different to general forgetfulness, which can be a normal part of ageing?
What is dementia?
Dementia is a brain condition that impacts a person’s memory, thinking, mood and behaviour.
It’s not one disease but a collection of symptoms caused by brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and the Lewy body types of dementia.
It’s more prevalent among those over 65 years old but .
What are the signs of Dementia?
Dementia can affect people differently.
There are a number of signs that experts say are worth looking into, including:
- Memory: trouble remembering recent events, names of things and people.
- Thinking: more confusion, difficulty concentrating, planning and problem-solving, trouble finding the right word.
- Behaviour: becoming restless and wandering, or more disturbed sleep. Difficulty with everyday activities.
- Mood: more prone to depression, anxiety and agitation, or losing interest in activities that were previously enjoyable.
How is dementia different to forgetfulness?
Unlike general forgetfulness, dementia affects your capacity to live and function on a daily basis, Dementia Australia’s Centre for Learning director Dr David Sykes said.
“The occasional forgetfulness obviously isn’t going to impact … how you’re able to live your life, but where you’re continually disorientated, not knowing what’s going on, because you’re not too on where you are and what’s happening around you, that’s obviously going to have a more profound impact on your capacity to function,” he said.
Sykes said dementia differed from age-related or general forgetfulness when it comes to significant cognitive issues and when you’ve seen changes in the way your brain is working.
“We’ll all have those experiences where we’ve gone into a room and thought, ‘Dang, what did I come in here for and go out again,'” he said, adding that this type of forgetfulness is not a clear sign of cognitive decline.
More clear signs of dementia are “forgetting where you live” or the “names of people who are close to you, when you’re struggling to make decisions, when you’re getting more disorientated around decision-making, when you’re getting anxious without knowing why.”
Sykes pointed to an app called BrainTrack that he said could help people better differentiate between forgetfulness and dementia — although it’s not a validated assessment.
However, a GP would ultimately be the best judge of assessing whether a person has dementia, he said.
Could it be something other than dementia?
Henry Brodaty, co-director of the Centre of Healthy Brain Ageing at the University of New South Wales, said some cognitive decline was a normal part of ageing.
“As we age, we become slower in our processing speed. We’re not as good at remembering things, particularly when they’re not able to be logically sorted and connected,” he said.
Brodaty said some conditions can cause similar symptoms to dementia — including Vitamin B12 deficiency, low thyroid, some infections, and certain types of cancer.
Depression, infections such as syphilis, urinary tract infections, stress, depression and a build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain — or normal pressure hydrocephalus — can also mimic dementia.
Dementia Action Week runs from 16 to 22 September.
