Who should come to a memory loss center?

I am often asked who should come to a memory disorders center and why should they bother. The answer is that if you have a family member, a spouse, a parent, who you feel is not thinking the same as they used to, something has changed that you do not like about their behavior, their ability to remember, their ability to perhaps handle the checkbook or finances, or their ability to drive, perhaps they are getting in more unexplained wrecks, all of these things can be signs of dementia and the earlier that you look into these issues, the more likely you are to be able to initiate treatment at a stage where it makes a difference. If you have a dementia that is caused by say Alzheimers and you are going to get worse and worse over time, it is better to get a diagnosis first of all and to start treatment early, because the treatments currently available for Alzheimers disease simply slow the disease process down. So if you are slowing something down, you would like to start while you are still pretty sharp and not wait until you have lost a great deal of ability and begin slowing the disease process down at that point. We found that through judicious application of medications we can delay the loss of certain abilities for up to two years in a disease, for instance, like Alzheimers. If someone was going to forget how to operate the microwave or the television remote or the phone, we might push that back by two years with use of certain treatments and medications. As far as nursing home placement, which unfortunately happens in a number of individuals once they get far enough along with dementia, certain treatments in Alzheimers can push nursing home placement two years further out into the future. With all the new treatments about to become available and the possibility of a cure on the horizon, that is really critical. If you can remain at home and still operate the microwave and the phone for two years longer than you would have otherwise, that is very, very helpful to other family members. Also, it is helpful to understand why someone\'s behavior may change. If someone is becoming more aggressive, confrontational, or argumentative, it may not be because of something they have personally against you, it may be a dementing process and that can sometimes be addressed and make life more normal. It can restore relationships to a more normal footing if everybody understands what is going on.

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