Alzheimer's Disease Signs & Symptoms

Conditions & Diseases: Brain & Nervous System

Alzheimer's Disease

Signs & Symptoms

The 10 most common symptoms for Alzheimer's disease include:

1. Loss of Memory: Forgetting some recent incidents and inability to recall information is a common sign of AD.

2. Performance of familiar tasks: People face difficulty in performing daily activities such preparing a meal or coffee, operating an oven, making a telephone call, playing a game, etc.

3. Communicating: People suffering from AD forget simple words and substitute some irrelevant words in their speech, thus making it difficult to understand for the listener.

4. Disorientation: People forget their familiar surroundings, neighborhood etc., wondering how they got there and do not know how to return home or their starting point.

5. Poor or reduced judgment: People suffering with AD tend to wear inappropriate clothing such as wearing bare minimum clothing on a cold day and dress in cold weather clothes on a hot day.

6. Abstract thinking: People with AD experience a “...difficulty in performing complex mental tasks” such as adding numbers, multiplying, dividing, subtracting, and some times even forget the purpose of numbers and calculation.

7. Misplacing articles: People tend to misplace articles in unusual places, such as placing a wristwatch in a sugar bowl or a plastic container on a gas stove.

8. Mood or behavioral changes: People suffering from AD exhibit rapid changes in moods - going from a happy, joyous mood to tears to anger for absolutely no reason.

9. Change in personality: Dramatic changes in personality of people suffering from dementia are observed, such as they become “extremely confused, suspicious, fearful or more dependent on family members.”

10. Loss of initiative: People suffering from AD become passive. For example watching TV for longer duration, sleeping for longer hours and not performing normal activities (11).

Article by Kona Vishnu, MS
Medical Writer,
OmniMedicalSearch.com