Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease

Common symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, inattention, or some abnormal behavioral symptoms. At the same time, there will be memory impairment and even inability to remember what happened that day.

1. Mental Disorders

(1) Depressed mood, emotional indifference, anxiety, excitement, euphoria and loss of control, decreased initiative, lack of concentration, talking to oneself or speaking loudly during the day, fear of being left alone at home, and a few patients experience inappropriate or frequent laughter.

(2) Some patients experience thinking and behavioral disorders, such as hallucinations, illusions, fragmentary delusions, fabrications, erratic behavior, aggressive tendencies, and personality changes. For example, they may suspect that their elderly and frail spouse is having an affair, suspect that their children are stealing their money or belongings, hide worthless items as treasures, feel hostile toward their family members as spies, change their minds irrationally, experience persistent anxiety, tension, and irritation, refuse visits from old friends, lose control of their words and deeds, and engage in reckless risky investments or pornographic behaviors.

(3) Bulimia or frequent neglect of eating. Most patients suffer from insomnia or nocturnal delirium.

2. Abnormal Behavior

Examination shows that in the early stage, patients still maintain their normal appearance. When the symptoms such as amnesia and aphasia are mild, there are no obvious abnormalities in the patients' activities, behaviors and social interactions. In severe cases, they appear restless, irritable or less active, do not pay attention to their clothes, are unkempt, and have poor personal hygiene. In the later stage, they still retain habitual autonomous activities, but cannot execute command actions. There are usually no pyramidal tract signs or sensory disturbances, gait is normal, and vision and visual field are relatively intact. If hemiplegia or homonymous hemianopsia occurs during the course of the disease, attention should be paid to whether it is complicated by stroke, tumor or subdural hematoma. In the late stage of the disease, limb stiffness, pyramidal tract signs, small gait, balance disorders and urinary and fecal incontinence may be seen. About 5% of patients experience epileptic seizures and Parkinson's syndrome. Patients with Parkinson's syndrome are often unable to stand and walk, and are bedridden all day, relying entirely on care for their lives.

3. Memory impairment

Gradual memory impairment or amnesia is an important feature or the first symptom of AD.

Obvious recent memory impairment: patients cannot remember daily trivialities that occurred that day, cannot remember what they have just done or said, forget where seldom-used nouns, appointments or valuables are placed, easily forget uncommon names, often repeat questions, easily confuse previously familiar names, and have a reduced vocabulary. Memories of remote events can be relatively preserved, but words that were not commonly used in early years will also be lost. Albert et al. examined patients' memory for dates of important political events and for identifying photographs of important past and present figures and found that memory loss encompasses the entire lifespan to some extent.