In my previous article I discussed five types of dementias which can occur during the elder years. In this article, I will look at certain conditions that can cause dementia-like symptoms in the elderly, but which can be treated and often reversed. In one research study involving 120 patients, forty years of age or older, Srikanth and Nagaraja found that in cases of the most common causes of reversible dementia the majority made significant improvement with proper treatment. These common causes of reversible dementia in the elderly are discussed below.
Drugs
Adverse reactions to medication are the most common form of reversible dementia.
Senior citizens account for about 12 percent of the population, but consume 30 percent of all the prescriptions written in the U.S. They take an average of five prescription and three over the counter drugs at the same time.
The aging body often responds differently to drugs than the younger one does. Often, we have no idea how the older person will respond to a particular drug. Older people tend not to be included in drug research. (See my article on this site: “Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Ageism in the Healthcare System.”) Also, older people may have trouble recalling when they took the last pill and could be overdosing themselves. On top of this, the printing on prescription bottles is so tiny that older eyes may have difficulty, even with glasses, reading the proper dosage to be taken.
In addition to all the work that you as a caretaker must do already is the task of keeping a comprehensive list of all the drugs your elder loved one is taking, including the name of the doctor who prescribed the medicine. If signs of dementia occur the doctor should be asked to analyze both the interaction of one drug with another and whether any drugs on the list are known to cause dementia-like symptoms. (See the list of drugs that may cause dementia at the end of this article.)
Dementia due to an adverse reaction to a drug is generally reversible by switching to another drug or by lowering the dosage. Johns-Hopkins stresses that it is especially important to avoid taking multiple drugs if one wants to lessen the chance of memory problems. However, as stated above the elderly are prescribed more drugs than any other group so this may not always be possible. Often there is more than one doctor involved and each one does not know what the other has prescribed. That’s when your list will come in especially handy.
Johns’ Hopkins suggests periodic ‘brown bag’ reviews of medications. A “brown bag review’ means the patient places all his/her prescription and non prescription medications in a bag and brings it to the primary care physician’s office. This is a way of being certain not to forget any drugs the individual is taking as well as decreasing the chance of confusing drug names and/or dosages.
