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Despite not being classified as a mental illness, here are four mental health disorders often mistaken for dementia due to their similar symptoms.
Considering dementia, one might think of it as a mental illness because of its effects on the brain; however, there are a few major differences among dementia and other mental illnesses that must be clearly and carefully noted to make an accurate diagnosis.
Although dementia affects brain function and mental health, it is not a mental illness. Rather, it is a disorder that can cause memory loss and difficulty communicating.
Below are some of the mental illnesses that can sometimes be mistaken as dementia due to their similar symptoms.
4 mental illnesses mistaken for dementia
- Depression: There are several symptoms that these illnesses share such as disorientation, mood swings, and reduced productivity, which is the reason it very well may be hard to distinguish between the two.
- The distinction can be made by understanding what both the conditions are.
- Dementia: A chronic, progressive disorder brought about by brain disease or injury that causes memory loss, character change, and decreased reasoning. It is often due to neuronal death.
- Depression: A mental health disorder that affects the person’s behavior, thinking, and personality. This is a chemical imbalance in the brain.
- The distinction can be made by understanding what both the conditions are.
- Late-onset bipolar disorder: Late-onset bipolar disorder is another type of manic or hypomanic (less extreme) episode after the age of 50 years that isn't caused by other potential causes such as medications, mind lesions, or brain injury.
- Late-onset bipolar disorder and dementia have many similar symptoms including:
- Agitation
- Depressive thinking
- Restlessness
- Anxiety
- Auditory hallucinations
- However, there are some contrasts too, such as:
- Individuals with late-onset bipolar disorder are bound to have a slower buildup to mania and a slower shift from mania to a depressive mood.
- Although certain people with bipolar disorder experience rapid mood swings each day, this symptom is all the more commonly found in individuals with dementia.
- Late-onset bipolar disorder and dementia have many similar symptoms including:
- Late-onset schizophrenia: Late-onset schizophrenia is a severe mental illness in which the affected person chaotically interprets reality and which then affects their ability to think, feel, and behave clearly.
- Psychosis, a group of symptoms and an important feature of schizophrenia, could be an early indication of dementia. In some cases, dementia causes schizophrenia-like symptoms that prompt false beliefs and confusions between the two.
- A few differences to help distinguish the two include:
- Memory and thinking difficulties are the early symptoms in most types of dementia. In schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusions are the early symptoms.
- Dementia is a progressive, chronic illness that consistently affects brain function. Although schizophrenia might worsen with time, it isn't progressive or fatal, and it doesn't normally affect day-to-day activities such as bowel and bladder control.
- Parkinson’s disease:
- Although an organic disease, Parkinson’s disease often has symptoms of both physical and mental illness.
- It is caused by reduced dopaminergic neurons in the brain (unlike serotonin neurons affected in depression), and affected individuals develop problems with cognitive function, including forgetfulness and trouble with concentration.
QUESTION
The abbreviated term ADHD denotes the condition commonly known as:
See Answer
What is dementia?
Dementia is an illness that describes the loss of cognitive functioning (intellectual function)—thinking, remembering, and reasoning—so much that it interferes with an individual's day-to-day life and activities.
Currently, dementia affects about 55 million people worldwide and is caused by various diseases and injuries that primarily or secondarily affect the brain.
- This can result in healthy neurons or nerve cells stopping functioning, losing connections with other neurons, and dying.
- Although everybody loses a few neurons as they age, individuals with dementia experience far greater loss.
Dementia is one of the main causes of death among all illnesses and is one of the leading causes of disability and dependence among the aged population.
What are the symptoms of dementia?
Symptoms of dementia include:
- Memory loss
- Disorientation and confusion
- Limited social skills
- Personality changes
- Trouble talking, understanding and expressing thoughts or even writing and reading
- Wandering and losing all sense of direction in a known neighborhood
- Repeating questions or sentences when they speak
- Using uncommon words to refer to familiar objects
- Taking more time to complete everyday tasks
