Stages in the development of Alzheimer’s disease

  Alzheimer’s disease is a persistent disorder of higher neurological functions. In simple terms, it is a disorder of memory, thinking, analysis and judgment, visual and spatial recognition, and emotion, without any impairment of consciousness. In general, Alzheimer’s disease often occurs after the age of 50, the onset is insidious, the development is slow, and the earliest stage is often with gradually increasing forgetfulness. This may be the precursor of Alzheimer’s disease, which can be roughly divided into three stages according to the development of the disease: Stage 1 (forgetfulness): This stage is characterized by significant memory loss, such as forgetting what was said, done or important appointments at the beginning, and slowly forgetting even the past. At the same time, the ability to think and analyze, make judgments, visual-spatial discrimination, and computational ability also decreases, but sometimes the familiar tasks or skills of the past can be maintained.  The second stage (confusion stage): In addition to the symptoms of the first stage, the most prominent manifestation of this stage is that the visual-spatial discrimination is significantly increased, and it is easy to get lost. It is also common to have difficulty dressing, or to wear pants as clothes; to not recognize the faces of friends or relatives, to not remember their names, and to not be able to talk to others, although sometimes they may talk to themselves.  The third stage (extreme dementia): The patient enters a state of total decline and cannot take care of himself/herself, such as eating, dressing and bathing, and is incontinent.  According to medical research, there is no specific medicine or treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical treatment is often based on drugs that can increase the amount of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, to improve the patient’s intelligence, behavior and emotional control, and to improve the patient’s quality of life. In addition to the necessary medication, home treatment and care are also very important.