How to Recognize the Symptoms of Alzheimer

James: I’m James from Los Angeles, California. And my question is, what are some of the common symptoms of Alzheimer’s and what test can my grandmother take or do to verify?

Elkhonon Goldberg: James, Alzheimer’s may take a variety of form particular to early stages. Memory loss is the most common symptom particularly an inability to acquire new information. There is also loss of vocabulary which is a relatively common symptom so that the person who used to be very fast with his language now find herself or himself at loss of finding or retrieving names of common object.

Also, spatial disorientation. Also, indecision and inability to make decisions, even simple decisions. So these various symptoms may appear in various combinations and the various levels of severity but it’s important to realize that in very mild forms, any of the above may be part of just normal cognition. We also have or cognitive slippages and our weak moments. So it’s important to engage in self diagnosis. But if you have any concern about your grandmother, then she should be encourage to have a more formal evaluation done by professionals and your psychological evaluation. There are specialized test designed to distinguished everyday slippages of cognition which are benign from cognitive impairments which may be clinically significant.




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