Alzheimer Disease Neurological Disorder

it is commonly referred to as an increasing factor of aging to most people where there is increased memory loss and loss of cognitive abilities. Alzheimer’s is a disease which is progressive, and its symptoms become more profound over time (Schneider, 2013). The disease has no cure and the current treatments are not able to stop it from progressing. However, they can cause the slowing of the progressing of the disease and improve the quality of life to the patients in the hands of caregivers. This paper will explore the Alzheimer’s disease, its symptoms, effectiveness some of its therapeutic interventions, and other alternative interventions measures on it. i. Mild Alzheimer’s disease When the disease progresses, victims would experience greater cognitive impairments or memory loss.

This can include getting lost after wondering, trouble paying bills or handling simple money issues, repeating questions, behavior and personality changes, and taking longer to complete simple daily tasks (Somesh, 2016). Most victims of the disease are usually diagnosed at this stage. ii. Over the decades, victims of the disease begin to manifest changes in the brain through complex series of brain abnormality (Madhusoodanan, 2008). The probable causes are therefore placed on environmental, lifestyle and genetic factors. The risk factor in these causes usually varies from one person to the other in terms of increasing or decreasing of vulnerability to it. One of the great mysteries which baffle researchers is why the disease usually largely affects older adults. Scientists contacting research on aging brain try to shed light to this aspect, this is especially in the part where changes in age of the brain results to harm to neurons and Alzheimer’s damage (Madhusoodanan, 2008).

Compared to other pharmacological treatments of the AD, cognitive interventions are cost-effective and less expensive and would not cause adverse side effects to the patients (Cohen-Mansfield & Mintzer, 2005). The aim of cognitive interventions is to include cognitive retraining and reality orientation to reduce the deficits of cognitive functionality. Recent studies have been used to evaluate research on therapeutic interventions on memory training and how to rehabilitate declining memory. In this result, cognitive interventions are more useful when used to cater for early or mild cases of the AD by neuropsychologists. There are two major advantages of using cognitive interventions to the victims of AD even though they vary from one person to the other. The effectiveness of cognitive interventions is that it can optimize cognitive functionality rather than restoring it.

this includes reducing the strain experienced by caregivers, enhancing life quality by making use and meaning of the environment and personal effects, preserving and maximizing the use of abilities (Cohen-Mansfield & Mintzer, 2005). The technique used to reduce recidivism is the intervention on implicit memory systems, which have not been impaired. This method includes the reduction or elimination of errors in acquiring new information, to preserve implicit memory. The spaced retrieval is a technique critical in aiding people to remember basic information for a very long time and reducing chances of losing basic memory again. tacrine has been disavowed because it is toxic to the liver and is not recommended for a prescription to the patients currently. The fifth AD drug, which is used to intervene on the AD is Memantine, but it blocks NMDA receptors, which in turn opposes the activity of glutamate (Schneider, 2013).

The use of AchEl had generated a lot of controversy among scientist and other stakeholders in the healthcare. The debate has not been on the efficacy of the use of the drugs, but rather the magnitude of benefit to the patients. The discussions usually involve to which stage should these drugs be withdrawn from being administered. Despite the fact there are differences and variations on the use of AchEls, there is no substantial evidence which points out that each individual AchEl differs from the other in terms of efficacy. Decisions on when to stop treatment of the disease have been subject to disease for a long time, but recent studies have shown that continued use of the drug even in later stages of the disease is beneficial (Schneider, 2015).

A continued use of donepezil has been lauded as beneficial even to severe stages of life has been lauded as being beneficial to the patients. However, the evaluation of the efficacy of AchEls in relation to the stage of AD found that the drugs were independent of dementia level and severity at each stage. The results found out that patients at different levels of the disease retained the ability to be responsive to the treatment using AchEls (Schneider, 2015). it is a form of emotion-oriented intervention which uses several aids such as images and photographs, songs, and art, books and other objects which hold memory to the patient (Dung Dao, 2014). The objective is on the enjoyment in which people make out of reminiscence themselves and induces a sense of identity by recalling old memories and lifting the patient’s self-esteem.

The patient exposure to reminiscence bears positive results in cognitive functioning and social interactions. However, it does not always result to the patient positing positive behavioral changes, because it is better on people who have come into terms with the conditions which they are suffering from (Dung Dao, 2014). Studies on reminiscence have indicated that patients have improved moods, social behaviors, interactions, cognitive functioning, as well as posting a decrease in behavioral problems such as restlessness, agitation, frustration, and aggression. Conclusion Studies conducted on alternative approaches to intervening in the AD have indicated that nonpharmacological interventions are able to post positive results on the patients. In this case, they are better at reducing the symptoms of the AD and have indicated that they have a significant impact on efficacy behavioral adjustments, cognitive and movement functionalities.