Alzheimer's Disease (Essay Sample)

Alzheimer’s Disease
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Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a form of dementia, a disorder of the brain, usually chronic, progressive and degenerative (Grossberg & Kamat, 2011). Clinically, the disease manifests itself through gradual decline in both memory and impairment of areas of high intellectual function  (Grossberg & Kamat, 2011). Further, abnormal collection of amyloid protein plaques and neuritic plaques, which is the degeneration of axon and dendrites surrounding an amyloid core, are the key characteristics of the disease (Grossberg & Kamat, 2011). Other characteristics  include; neurofibrially tangles (NFTs), depicted by twisted fibers inside the neurons’ cell bodies, loss of neurons, and amyloid angiopathy, described by the presence of amyloid deposits in the brain small blood vessels (Grossberg & Kamat, 2011).
The stages of the disease aid a lot in the description and establishing of the symptoms. Similarly, there are different symptoms evinced in the different stages, categorized under the domain of cognitive, and behavior (Grossberg & Kamat, 2011). AD progresses through mild, moderate and severe stages, and in mild stage, the symptoms displayed include; deficits in recall of recent events and personal details, worsening ability to concentrate, and evident decline on cognitive ability. Moreover, there is depression and withdrawal, and decrease in motivation, enthusiasm and initiative (Grossberg & Kamat, 2011). In moderate stage, there is worsening of the language skills, increase in the inability to perform basic activities, and increase in agitation, restlessness, aggression and paranoid behavior (Grossberg & Kamat, 2011).
Symptoms exhibited in the severe stage entails; inability to recognize people, loss of lan...