Although vascular dementia is difficult to fully recover from, the overall treatment effect is still obvious, and family members should not fight with the dementia patient to understand the rights and wrongs when caring for them, but should go along with their wishes and try to avoid conflicts. In today’s world where the elderly are being “put down” by stroke and cerebral infarction, the public is more concerned about vascular dementia than even traditional Alzheimer’s dementia. Families of patients with cerebrovascular disease, in particular, are tormented by the strange problems of their loved ones after a stroke and are left with no peace of mind. Experts point out that although vascular dementia is difficult to fully recover from, the overall treatment effect is still obvious, and family members should never argue the rights and wrongs with the dementia patient in their care, but rather go along with their wishes and try to avoid conflict. There is a difference with Alzheimer’s dementia: With advances in detection technology, the prevalence of vascular dementia in the population has now exceeded 3% and is increasing with age. The etiology is mainly due to cerebral ischemia and hemorrhagic lesions: the former has cerebral infarction and cerebral atherosclerosis, resulting in insufficient oxygen supply to the brain and relatively slow progression of dementia in patients; the latter is a stroke that bursts a blood vessel and requires emergency treatment after occurrence, such as craniotomy, and if a life can be recovered, dementia can occur several months later due to neurological damage in the brain and progresses relatively quickly. Because the relationship with the vascular lesion is clear, the family can recall the exact date of the onset of the disease, whereas in the case of Alzheimer’s dementia, it is not easy to determine the time of onset, and the family can only say vaguely that “it may have been three or four years since the disease started”. Patients with vascular dementia mainly suffer from neurological damage, headaches, insomnia, tinnitus, numbness, impaired recent memory, inattention, and mood swings; some patients have difficulty pronouncing words, even choke on water, and have reduced comprehension. Treatment: Both medication and physical therapy are effective. Preventing vascular dementia means preventing cerebrovascular disease, focusing on establishing healthy habits, preventing blood pressure from rising, and preventing hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. Avoid large fish and meat in the diet, smokers try to smoke less, and obese people pay attention to weight control. Currently, medications are available for vascular dementia: vasodilator drugs can strengthen the blood supply to the brain and restore the oxygen supply to brain cells; memory drugs can repair the cognitive function of patients to a certain extent. In addition to medications, physical therapy can also be helpful, including cognitive function training and memory therapy. According to the principles of memory therapy, family members can mention more about the past to the patient and open them up by remembering the year, which can help restore memory and also relieve their stress and reduce violent behavior. “These treatments can’t fully restore the dementia patient to their pre-onset state, but the overall efficacy is definite, and at least it can make family care much less stressful.” Coping: what about the mentally deranged elderly with dementia? In addition to impaired memory, many patients with vascular dementia can exhibit mental confusion, greatly compounding the difficulties of family care. He stressed that if severe mental confusion occurs, family members should send the patient to a psychiatric specialist as soon as possible. In normal times, there are several tips to cope with the following: 1. Due to poor memory, patients often lose everything, for example, when they cannot find their shirts or missing their favorite fruits, they blame their daughters-in-law or granddaughters for stealing. At this point, the children and grandchildren usually feel aggrieved. If they do not understand the dementia condition, family members may argue or even fight with the patient. At this point, it is important for the family member not to tell them what is right and wrong, but to say, “Okay, I’ll help you find your things”, so as not to reason too much and make them feel that their words and actions are abnormal and cause emotional tension. It is good to find the lost things, but it does not matter if they are not found, because the search process takes time, and maybe after an hour, the patient will forget what just happened. 2. The patient may make unreasonable demands, such as “going to Beijing to see Chairman Mao”. Family members should not criticize the request as unrealistic, but should first agree to it as much as possible, and then say that it takes time to buy the tickets, and it takes time to contact the reception, etc. Let the patient wait until the next day, and then he or she will naturally forget that he or she made those requests yesterday. 3. Patients may experience significant mood swings at night, or even delirium, temper tantrums, and beatings when they see people, and then get better during the day. Family members do not need to panic, just remove dangerous objects (knives, fuel, etc.) from the patient’s surroundings, and let people familiar with the patient communicate with them as much as possible to calm their emotions. If appropriate, let the patient drink a few sips of cool boiled water can also be effective in making him/her awake. If the patient has suicidal tendencies such as jumping from a building, family members should immediately find more people to help forcefully stop the patient to avoid injury or themselves being hurt by the patient.