Mental Health iIlness (DEMENTIA) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Mental Health iIlness (DEMENTIA) - Essay Example Since impaired neurons are not capable of reproducing or renewing, the changes are irreversible, and any outcomes they produce are often irreversible (p. 118). Generally, it is not possible to halt the progression of the illness, because no cure is available. Hence the condition could affect other nerve cells, slowly but unavoidably resulting in the behavioural disorders and incapacities called ‘dementia’ (Esiri & Trojanowski 2004, 1-2). The outcomes could be illustrated as an organised deterioration of the mind through which the individual becomes more and more helpless, insecure, difficult, unaware, and inadequate. With an aging population that is drastically enlarging, there is the likelihood that dementia will become massively prevalent in the 21st century. Dementia: An Overview Dementia is defined by the World Health Organisation as (Curran & Wattis 2004, 10): A syndrome due to disease of the brain, usually of a chronic or progressive nature, in which there is impai rment of multiple higher cortical functions, including memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language and judgment. Consciousness is not clouded. The cognitive impairments are commonly accompanied, and occasionally preceded, by deterioration in emotional control, social behaviour, or motivation. Hence this illness has implications for the capacity of individuals to deal with facets of their everyday lives to their prior capabilities. Commonplace tasks like taking a bath, dressing, going to work, leisure, and building and maintaining relationships become more and more taxing. If the individual endures dementia for a long time it could become painfully difficult for him/her to perform such tasks by themselves or to communicate or express needs clearly and intelligibly (Judd 2011, 89). The nature of dementia is that it is an accelerating condition; signs become more evident and impinge on the person’s life on a greater extent, sooner or la ter spreading through all parts. Signs and Symptoms Loss of memory is dementia’s most common symptom. There are those who fail to remember the names, or even faces, of people they have been acquainted to for a long time, or lose their way in long known places. There are those who have obsessed or paranoid delusions about the people around them (Esiri & Trojanowski 2004, 3). Numerous have abrupt, unhealthy loss of weight. When such diagnoses do not disable function or ability, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is detected (Esiri & Trojanowski 2004, 3). According to Levine (2006, 29), roughly 20% of individuals with MCI progress to dementia as these cognitive disorders affect everyday activities and function. Psychiatric signs and symptoms (e.g. depression, psychosis) were identified as major features of dementia since 1907. In spite of this finding, emphasis during the earlier decades has usually focused exclusively on memory deficits and other cognitive areas that have been dra wn on to identify dementia’s clinical symptoms (Budson & Kowall 2011, 113). The scientific value and extensive prevalence of other mental disorders in dementia are currently the focus of numerous specialists and researchers. According to some findings, the pervasiveness of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia is