There have been so many comments on different threads about politicians, famous septuagenarians, octogenarians and nonagenarians (as well as many of us, our friends and families) who may experience normal age-related cognitive changes vs those truly having some form (and there are many forms) of dementia. Perhaps it would be helpful to have a centralized place to discuss this, hopefully to minimize the name-calling and insults thrown about the “other side’s” candidate.
Whether either of the 2 primary candidates has anything other than age-related cognitive changes is for their doctors to decide. But perhaps a better understanding of some of the basic differences between what we used to call “benign senescent forgetfulness”, vs MCI (mild cognitive impairment) or some form of dementia.
Thought his article might be a good starting point.
Great topic!
My dad developed very mild dementia a few years before he passed at the age of 85. He was lucid nearly all the time, and if my stepmom hadn’t told me, I simply would have thought he was just a bit forgetful sometimes.
My stepmom is as sharp as nails. She is nearly 89.
My own mother passed at 83 and was still very together by all appearances. If she had dementia, I wasn’t aware.
My husband’s parents were 93 when they passed. His parents were both mostly very cognizant until their final years. His mom developed dementia at about age 90. I am sure it’s a gradual process though and I assume it was a subtle process. I don’t know though.
A small sample, but those were the elderly people I knew well and they pretty much all still had their marbles.
Agree, this varies so much by person. My dad balanced his checkbook a few days before he died (not dementia related at all). Same with my stepmom. Very with it.
My mom, OTOH, had issues her whole life. These became worse and worse…no one would say she had dementia…but what else was it? All the typical symptoms of dementia were there. In retrospect, many of these symptoms had been there for a while… She died at 76.
That sounds like my mom (and she died at the same age). She was evaluated for dementia while being seen for heart issues at Mayo in Florida. I sat with her while she did the short evaluation that they use. She did fine on that. But they never did any type of evaluation that would have identified the actual problems she was having. I was really frustrated, because it seemed like doctors didn’t want to listen.
My husband told me a few months ago that he thought I might have early dementia. He was listening to me talk on a zoom call for work and noticed that I was searching for words.
I told him that
I’ve always been orally inarticulate. I actually think I have some sort of communication disorder bc I can write 10 times better than I can speak,
I suffer from depression which affects cognitive functioning,
I have sleep apnea which can affect cognitive functioning,
I take medications that “ “,
…and he should chill out because I’m aware of my difficulties and it’s hurtful for me to have them pointed out.
I acknowledge that I have age related deficits as I used to not have to write down appointments, etc., but now I have to rely on text reminders, etc. But I beat him consistently at the NYT’s Connections game and yesterday I caught something that he threw across the room at me with my left hand. I also made all the arrangements for our upcoming trip to do some rockhounding in MI, as well as two other recent trips, and all the other trips we’ve taken during our marriage. I do our taxes as well.
The point is, I guess, is that it’s difficult to make the distinction between age related decline and dementia and an in depth assessment of a person’s situation should be done before family members jump to conclusions.
Ouch. I also feel like I am “orally inarticulate” these days. It just takes me a while to get my thoughts out orally and I often have several false starts, but if I’m typing on a keyboard I can move pretty fast and somehow don’t experience the same difficulty. DH and I have a friendly competition doing Spelling Bee every day. I’m also the one who tracks all the plans for our trips, although DH is usually the one who generates the ideas and figures out the best deals.
My friend insisted that her husband should get his hearing tested because he had a hard time hearing her whenever she was talking to him. He finally went to see a doctor. The doctor did a complete check up. The conclusion was the husband had no hearing problem, he just had a hard time hearing her.
In school I learned that dementia wasn’t losing your glasses but rather forgetting you wear glasses. My dad had a spectacular downward spiral into Alzheimer’s. He was known to drink too much so that delayed his diagnosis. One of the things he struggled with was time. If I was taking him to a 9 AM doctor’s appointment he would call me multiple times in the middle of the night asking why I wasn’t there yet to pick him up. I would explain that it was 2 AM and his appointment wasn’t until 9 AM. A little while later he would call again……
My husband asks me the same things over and over. His hearing is fine and he doesn’t have dementia, he just doesn’t listen.
This is similar to what my H says (who is a Neurologist and so does cognitive exams many times a day). It doesn’t really matter if you forget where you put your keys, or even if you find them in someplace unusual like the refrigerator. But if someone shows you a key and you don’t know what is is for THAT is a problem.
That level of impairment ( not knowing what a key is for) typically indicates later stages of dementia. Earlier stages, such as MCI, can be identified with a more comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation (many of my referrals came from neurologists), treatment plans can be formulated, and the initial evaluation provides excellent baseline data for later comparative purposes.
And with digital door locks and car key fobs and start buttons, screening tests that include them will have to be updated!!
I am referring to upcoming screening tools for younger (even our) generations. For example, There were items on the Boston Naming Test that had to be updated because some of the items in the original versions were unfamiliar to the newer population being evaluated. These tests, as I said, WILL have to be updated.
Exactly…how many folks will recognize things like an iron, payphone, even a regular map? All things that have been on assessments in the recent past.
But how will that work…because (not with the obsolete items I named above) but there will be a time when one age group will recognize some things…and the younger one won’t.
IIRC, on the original Boston. naming Test, there was a drawing of what was supposed to be an older style telescope, but it really looked, to more contemporary eyes, like 3 thermal tumblers stacked on top of each other. They had to start to make exceptions until new norms could be developed or an item substituted.
