Stages
The life span of patients with Alzheimer's is generally reduced, although a patient may live anywhere from 3 to 20 years after diagnosis. The final phase of the disease may last from a few months to several years, during which time the patient becomes increasingly immobile and dysfunctional. Caregivers should understand the phases of this illness in order to help determine their own capacities for dealing with this painfully sad disease.
Home Treatment in Early Stages
Telling the Patient. Often doctors will not tell patients that they have Alzheimer's. If a patient expresses a need to know the truth, it should be disclosed. Both the caregiver and the patient can then begin to address issues that can be controlled, such as access to support groups and drug research.
Mood and Emotional Behavior. Patients display abrupt mood swings and many become aggressive and angry. Some of this erratic behavior is caused by chemical changes in the brain. But it may also be due to the experience of losing knowledge and understanding of one's surroundings, causing fear and frustration that patients can no longer express verbally.
The following recommendations for caregivers may help soothe patients and avoid agitation:
- Keep environmental distractions and noise at a minimum if possible. (Even normal noises, such as people talking outside a room, may seem threatening and trigger agitation or aggression.)
- Speak clearly. Most experts recommend speaking slowly to a patient with Alzheimer's disease, but some caregivers report that patients respond better to clear, quickly spoken, short sentences that they can more easily remember.
- Use a combination of facial expression, voice tones, and words for communicating emotions. (One study suggested that patients may have difficulty in recognizing the meaning of facial expressions, particularly those signaling sadness, surprise, and disgust.)
- Limit choices (such as clothing selection).
- Offer diversions, such as a snack or car ride, if the patient starts shouting or exhibiting other disruptive behavior.
- Simply touching and talking may also help.
- Maintain as natural an attitude as possible. Patients with Alzheimer's disease can be highly sensitive to the caregiver's underlying emotions and react negatively to patronization or signals of anger and frustration.
- Showing movies or videos of family members and events from the patient's past may be comforting.
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