NeuroNote #4: Alzheimer's Disease

    For this Neuronote I chose to watch the YouTube video, “My father’s behavior in the moderate stages of Alzheimer’s disease”. I decided to watch this video because I know several people that have family members with Alzheimer’s. After reading the caption under this video on Dr. Lancaster’s resources page, I was interested in watching. Alzheimer’s affects 2 new cases per 1,000 people aged 65-74 per year, 11 new cases per 1,000 people aged 75-84 per year and 37 new cases per 1,000 people aged 85 and older per year. Researchers do not know a cause for Alzheimer’s Disease but they believe it could be because of amyloid-beta plaques and Tau protein tangles. Alzheimer’s affects memory, thinking and reasoning, making judgements and decisions planning and performing familiar tasks, and can affect personality and behavior. There are current medications that can temporarily improve symptoms or slow the rate of decline. Early diagnosis is important so that the client can start medications or possibly get into a clinical trial. 

    The son of the man in the video has a comment under the video further explaining who his father is and what he does. His father was an infantryman in Vietnam and then was a police officer for the city of Detroit for 15 years. He retired on medical disability when his patrol car was hit by a drunk driver.

The video starts with the man just crumpling and ripping papers apart. He goes to put it in the toilet to throw away but the person behind the video stops to tell him that that’s not where it goes and points him to the trash.  He then goes over to the cat litter box, shakes it around and tries to use his hands to clean it. The son explains that he does this daily because he wants to be able to do chores and help around the house. The son takes him to go wash his hands and his father has a really hard time figuring out how to wash his hands correctly. He continues to walk around the house rearranging things like the pillows on the bed, things on his dresser, the mixed matched shoes under his bed,  When asks why he was looking behind the laundry hamper he says, “I understand why, but I don’t understand why”. The son keeps asking his dad to come relax and watch TV but that does not seem like an easy request.

 

    This video was hard and heart wrenching to watch because when you think of Alzheimer’s, you usually just think about memory loss. You don’t think about everything that goes on on a daily basis that the client will be confused about. They become confused about anything from where to throw away trash to how to wash their hands.  This video sheds light onto the symptoms that are sometimes overlooked with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. The son of the man in the video says, “I lost my mother to cancer nearly twenty years ago, and I think this disease is far far worse”. I highly recommend watching this video regardless on if you know someone with this disease. It has given me a new perspective of how people with Alzheimer's are living and how much a caregiver has to go through to keep them safe. The YouTube link is below! 


Alzheimer’s disease. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alzheimers-                             disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20350447

 

[volleybrad] (2015, July 5). My father’s behavior in the moderate stages of Alzheimer’s disease [video].              YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdzKXhyv_tg


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