Jimu news reporter Zheng Jingjing
Correspondent Deng Shengqiang Chen Zhi
In recent years, I suddenly can't write well, the taste of cooking is not as good as before, I still love to quarrel with people, and the abnormality of Ms. Cao, a 65-year-old retired teacher, has attracted the attention of her daughter. Recently, accompanied by her family, Ms. Cao came to the Memory Clinic of Wuhan Mental Health Center for medical treatment and learned that she was suffering from dementia.
Gentle mother-in-law quarreled and suffered from dementia
Ms. Cao was a primary school teacher before retiring and had a mild personality. Since the death of her husband, Ms. Cao has lived alone. In recent years, Ms. Cao has become more and more entangled, easily provoked, often quarreling with neighbors because of some small things, and gradually, people in the community are more afraid of her, and some neighbors and friends who used to have a good relationship with her have also become estranged from her. Not long ago, daughter Xiao Liu came home from other places to see her mother, listened to people in the community talk about the fact that her mother loved to quarrel with people, and thought that in recent years, she found that her mother could not write well, and the taste of cooking was very different from before, and she was vaguely worried. Under the persuasion and companionship of her daughter, Ms. Cao came to a general hospital for neurology, and the doctor suggested that Xiao Liu take Ms. Cao to the memory clinic of Wuhan Mental Health Center for medical treatment.
In the memory clinic of Wuhan Mental Health Center, Dr. Wang Zongqin of the hospital learned through detailed inquiries and assessments that in the past 2 years, Ms. Cao often loves to forget things, often does not remember what happened in the past day or two, and others may turn their heads and forget what they just told him, but they remember very clearly what happened decades ago, and even how much it sold. The reason why she quarreled with the neighbors was because of her comprehension problems, there was no way to understand what others said, but stubbornly insisted on her own, so there was a quarrel, "For example, a pound of rice for 3 yuan, she felt expensive, not to say that rice used to be a few dimes a pound, but that was decades ago." Others think it is incredible, but she is stubborn and argues with people. Combined with imaging examination and scale evaluation, Dr. Wang Zongqin diagnosed that Ms. Cao was suffering from dementia.
Wang Zongqin is sitting in the memory clinic
Poor memory or early symptoms of the disease
"Always forget where important things are placed, whether you turn your head and forget what you just said, do you often throw them around... Some elderly people have a similar situation, thinking that this is a normal aging phenomenon and has not attracted attention, but it is likely that this is an early sign of many diseases. Dr. Wang Zongqin said.
She said there are many causes of memory problems, some may be short-lived and reversible, and some may be pathological and irreversible. Memory loss in the elderly has physiological causes and may also be in the early stages of dementia. Therefore, early diagnosis and effective intervention have the potential to delay or prevent the development of cognitive dysfunction into dementia. Conversely, if it is not recognized early, the optimal intervention period is lost, and then the treatment is severe, and the treatment effect is often very poor.
So, if citizens are worried that they or their families around them have "dementia", what is the right way? Wang Zongqin said that the public should go to the memory clinic of a regular medical institution, and the doctor will comprehensively analyze, evaluate and intervene in combination with age and the characteristics of memory decline.
So, who needs to see a memory clinic? She said that there are the following: those who suspect that their memory has declined, especially those who are middle-aged and older; those whose memory is gradually declined by their families and close care; those who have not been found to have obvious memory problems, but other cognitive functions have declined, such as language ability, recognition ability of people in time and place, computing ability, logical judgment ability, etc.; people with significant and persistent insomnia, snoring, dreaming or abnormal behavior during sleep; people with lasting personality changes. And often accompanied by anxiety, depression or poor emotional stability and other psychological problems and so on.
Citizens or relatives and friends around them, if they are troubled by the above problems, can go to the memory clinic of a regular medical institution for consultation and screening in time.
Wang Zongqin is receiving patients
People with dementia also show some mental and behavioral symptoms
Wang Zongqin also stressed that many dementia patients are often accompanied by some mental and behavioral symptoms.
For example, she once treated an elderly female patient who was often unhappy at home, sighing, crying, insomnia, and was diagnosed with depression after visiting the doctor. After she went to the Wuhan Mental Health Center for medical treatment, the doctor asked her in detail why she was unhappy and crying, and some of the things she said, the family said, happened decades ago, and the patients confused the time, place and events when they told these things. Dr. Wang Zongqin considered the presence of a hamartotype in the patient, and after detailed questioning and cognitive function assessment, judged that the patient was suffering from dementia.
In addition, she also said that in the elderly psychosomatic ward of the Wuhan Mental Health Center, there are often some elderly patients who come to the doctor because of the symptoms of some mental illness, such as hallucinations, delusions, impulsive beatings or not eating or drinking, but in fact, after careful examination by doctors, it was found that in fact, patients began to have some signs of dementia in the year or two before this, such as memory problems, cognitive function damage, and so on.
Wang Zongqin said that the Wuhan Mental Health Center is a member of the national memory outpatient network and standardized construction project, and the memory clinic opened by the center is attended by the medical team of the elderly psychosomatic ward, which aims to conduct a professional assessment of individual memory, cognition, intelligence and behavioral ability, understand the cognitive decline, analyze the causes of cognitive decline, assess the severity, and carry out targeted intervention and treatment, so as to achieve early detection, early prevention and early treatment, improve the quality of life of patients, and reduce the burden on caregivers.