Whilst each person is different and may experience the disease in different ways, the following signs and symptoms
are the most common:
- increasing and persistent forgetfulness. In the early stages people may experience periodic lapses in short term memory. This will become
more persistent and severe. Appointments, names, conversations will be forgotten, things will get misplaced and turn up in illogical locations;
- problems with abstract thinking. Initially people may have problems with quite complex arithmetic but this will progress to an inability
to recognise and deal with numbers.
- people may have problems expressing themselves and be unable to find the right word. Following the sense of a conversation
will become more and more difficult.
- people will experierience problems in carrying out tasks that require planning and judgement like preparing a meal;
- people will often lose their sense of time and dates and may find themselve lost in places that are familiar to them;
- a person's personality may change, becoming more distrustful of others and socially withdrawn. As the disease progresses people may become more aggressive
and begin to behave inappropriately:
- people with Alzheimer's will have problems in learning new information and skills.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) makes the point that it is the behavioural changes that carers find most
difficult to manage, these include:
- depression;
- apathy;
- agitation;
- disinhibition;
- delusions;hallucinations;
- wandering;
- aggression;
- incontinence;
- altered eating habits.
It is important to remember that not everyone has all of these symptoms at the same time, what can be said is that the person will gradually
lose brain function and may react to this process in a variety of different ways.
