Focus on mental problems of the elderly

  In addition to the gradual aging of physical functions, some people may exhibit slow mental activity, a tendency to talk about the past, rambling, and emotional instability. However, if there is no significant memory impairment, no difficulty in adapting to new things, and maintaining the rationality of behavior, it is not a pathology. In today’s society, material life has improved significantly and the quality of life has gradually improved. Many elderly people of advanced age maintain a strong life force, a wide range of interests and creativity in their work.  Geriatric psychosis occurs mostly after the age of 60, and it is a progressive mental decline disease that occurs on the background of age-related changes in the whole organism, trauma, wasting somatic diseases and psychiatric factors that can contribute to the occurrence of psychosis. Its main clinical manifestations are intellectual decline, memory impairment, and significant emotional and personality changes, as well as the aging of the whole body; it often appears first with personality changes, early manifestations are suspicious and sensitive, narrow-minded and selfish, inattentive, rash and sloppy, difficult to familiarize with new work, adherence to rules, stubbornness; and lazy life, untidy, unkempt, loss of appetite, sleep reversal ( The symptoms of sleep disorder (no sleep at night, walking around, or purposelessly packing things, but sleepy during the day), depression. Generally, after 2-3 years, the symptoms become more and more serious, gradually lose interest in the outside world, reaction and movement are slow, easily irritated, or childish euphoria; language and behavior are disorganized, nagging rambling, repetitive shouting; childish behavior, absurd; collection of waste, unashamed. With the aggravation of the above symptoms, the intellectual impairment also becomes more and more serious, especially the memory impairment occurs earlier and is the most significant. At first, they forget the near things, but gradually they extend to the past, and they forget the distant things, and in severe cases, they forget their own names and do not recognize their children. In severe cases, the person may forget his or her own name and not recognize his or her children. Due to the lack of memory, the person often unconsciously makes up facts to compensate. For example, if you lose an object, you may say that it was stolen. Later on, orientation and comprehension will gradually become severely impaired, and the patient may not be able to find the door of his or her home even if he or she is several steps away from it. A small number of patients may experience psychomotor excitement on the background of dementia, or may have absurd delusions and hallucinations. Delusions are mostly of victimization, self-blame, suspicion, and poverty delusions, and some patients present exaggerated delusions. As dementia progresses further, delusions tend to disappear. In the advanced stage, patients are unable to take care of themselves and have no control over their bowels. The physical manifestations include old age, white hair and teeth, dry and wrinkled skin, tremors of the tongue and hands, corneal rings, weak pupil response to light and regulation, and diminished vision and hearing. The main pathological changes are brain atrophy, especially in the prefrontal lobe, brain weight loss, flattening of the brain gyrus, widening of the brain sulcus, and enlargement of the ventricles.  In TCM, based on the fact that the etiology and mechanism of geriatric psychosis is the deficiency of the brain and the degeneration of brain function, the treatment of geriatric psychosis should first consider how to solve the key problem of deficiency of the brain and promote brain function. Because the kidney is the organ that stores essence, and essence can produce marrow, which is gathered in the cranial cavity and becomes the brain, the brain is the highest level of neural activity center. Since the brain is produced by kidney essence, replenishing kidney essence is to fill the material basis of the brain, thus promoting brain function. Therefore, it is effective to treat senile psychosis by replenishing the kidney essence and strengthening the brain. Also, using this method of health care to prevent geriatric mental problems and brain dementia is an active and effective measure.