Dementia and Depression -- How to get a "Fully Baked" Diagnosis

clipped from www.alzheimersreadingroom.com Why not try and treat what is able to be treated? It may just save your family from unnecessary grief..... The Alzheimer’s Association, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America -- and other groups that deal with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia -- all advocate diagnosis. They are right, of course, but there’s more to it than that. Real differences abound in diagnoses -- the "half baked" diagnosis and the "full baked" diagnosis. A half baked diagnosis is a doctor who asks a few memory questions and then says,”Yes, you have dementia. Here, take this.” He gives you a prescription for Aricept or one of the other four FDA approved drugs. A full baked diagnosis consists of three parts:

Original content Carole Larkin, the Alzheimer's Reading Room

Problems with Balance, Walking and Falling Can Be an Early Sign of Alzheimer's

Balance and walking problems often present before the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's or dementia...

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

When I first came to Delray Beach to take care of my mother, she was falling down all the time. Once, I found her laying in the parking lot and she could not get up. She was shaking like a leaf. Another time she fell down and broke her little finger. It took us over ten hours in the emergency room that time around. She would fall and couldn't get back up.

Predicting the Rate of Decline In Alzheimer's Dementia Patients

Readers often ask, what stage of Alzheimer's is s/he in, and how will the Alzheimer's disease progress?.....

By Bob DeMarco

I think most Alzheimer's caregivers wonder about how Alzheimer's disease will progress in their loved one. Do you?

As far as I know there is no answer to this question.

I know I wake up wondering every single day if this will be the day my mother takes a big down turn in her cognitive health. Some days I think she is worse than others. I often think on a real bad day, this is it. But somehow she bounces back the next day.