What are the 7 stages of senile dementia?

This disease popularly called senile dementia affects more than 50 million people worldwide, with an increase of approximately 10 million cases per year. What is senile dementia and what are its different stages.

To begin with, it is necessary to know that the term senile – which implies the deterioration that is perceived in a elderly person – it’s wrong. Although dementia refers to a number of conditions that usually affect people over the age of 65, it has been diagnosed in much younger patients.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines dementia as “a syndrome -generally chronic or progressive in nature- characterized by deterioration of cognitive function beyond what might be considered a consequence of normal aging.

Characteristics of dementia in its different typologies

It is a term that implies a series of 7 diseases, but the Alzheimer’s It represents between 60 and 80 percent of dementia cases, according to studies conducted in different parts of the world.

In general terms, the dementia It usually occurs after the age of 65, which would imply that brain aging would be the most frequent cause and the most significant risk factor. Neurologists study that it is the product of damage or loss of nerve cells and their connections in the brain.

Symptoms that usually coincide in different diseases within this term are loss of memory, reasoning ability and language, but also the behavior and emotionality of the people affected. At the end of the disease curve, patients require ongoing care.

The seven known stages of dementia

As explained on the Sanitas de España portal, These diseases evolve more or less rapidly depending on each patient and new symptoms appear as time goes by. According to this progression, the treatment will depend on the drugs administered to the patient up to the assistance or therapy he needs.

This is why it is important for doctors to establish seven stages in which to evaluate each individual.

• Phase 1: even when it is already diagnosed, no functional cognitive impairment is found.
• Phase 2: Patients are personally aware that they have suffered some type of decline in their abilities.
• Phase 3: Some functional deficiencies occur in demanding work situations.
• Phase 4: Patients begin to need help with complex tasks that they previously had no problem with, such as planning a trip, keeping household accounts, making payments, etc.
• Phase 5: It is now essential that those affected receive help to carry out basic activities of daily living, except washing or eating.
• Phase 6: Patients cannot perform personal hygiene independently, cannot go to the bathroom alone and may become incontinent.
• Phase 7: You lose the ability to speak, reducing your vocabulary to just a few words. They may also have difficulty walking.