Peak disease refers to rare diseases affecting the central nervous system. The cause of the appearance of this disease has not been fully studied, nor has a remedy been found for it. The disease affects people after 60 years and quickly progresses.
What is Pick's disease?
Pick's disease is a disease characterized by senile dementia. The cause of its development is the damage to the cells of the frontal and temporal lobes. The cerebral cortex is a part of the brain that decreases with Pick's disease, the line between white and gray brain substance is blurred. The patient begins to navigate less well in space, loses existing skills, can not acquire new knowledge and skills. The change in personality leads to a decrease in self-control and an increase in the role of desires and instincts.
Disease of the peak and Alzheimer's - differences
Disease Peak and Alzheimer's are similar among themselves symptoms, among which the main is the development of dementia. A separate disease is Niemann Pick, which has a similar name, but a completely different symptomatology and course. To differentiate between Alzheimer's disease and Pick's disease, it is important to pay attention to such features:
- Age. Peak's disease can manifest itself in people after 50 years, and Alzheimer's disease is typical for older people - 60-70 years.
- Cognitive abilities. In Alzheimer's disease, attention, memory and thinking suffer first, and in Pick's disease, problems with cognitive abilities appear at a later stage.
- Personality. In Alzheimer's disease, a person's personality persists for a long time, and in the case of Pick's disease, pathological changes in the personality are immediately apparent. A patient with a diagnosis of Pick's disease wanders, follows his instincts, rejects care for him, behaves stalled.
- Speech. Patients with Pick's disease lose some of the vocabulary, but retain the skills of reading and writing. In Alzheimer's disease, speech problems develop slowly, but the skills of reading and writing are lost.
- Course of the disease. Peak's disease is characterized by an aggressive course, develops rapidly and can lead to death in 6 years. Alzheimer's disease is characterized by a softer course. The life after the diagnosis is 7-10 years.
Causes of senile dementia
Symptoms of Pick's disease were described back in 1892, but until this time, the exact causes of the disease have not been established. Senile dementia, dementia may be inherited, but sporadic cases occur more often. Among the possible causes of the disease, researchers call these:
- stay a person for a long time under the influence of harmful chemicals, taking drugs, alcoholism;
- frequent or excessive anesthesia ;
- mental disorders;
- tumors;
- craniocerebral trauma;
- infection;
- vitamin deficiency caused by a lack of B vitamins .
Pick's disease - symptoms and signs
Senile dementia, the symptoms of which grow with the development of the disease, manifests itself brightly at the beginning of the disease. Doctors call such signs of senile dementia:
- extreme selfishness;
- follow your instincts and desires;
- antisocial behavior;
- decreased self-monitoring function;
- changes in speech, repetition of the phrases you like;
- extreme mood states: euphoria or apathy ;
- unsteadiness of mood and emotions;
- amnesia , attention disorder;
- loss of learning ability;
- loss of ability to communicate with others.
Disease of the disease - stages
Peak's disease, the symptoms and signs of which depend on the stage of the disease, begins with minor personality disorders, and ends with the death of the patient. There are three stages of the disease:
- Development of selfish inclinations. The patient ceases to pay attention to the desires and character of the surrounding people. The center of his universe is himself. His desires and needs come to the fore, which he aspires to satisfy as quickly as possible. Along with this, the ability to self-criticism and self-control decreases. There is emotional instability, a tendency to euphoria and apathy.
- Violation of cognitive functions. There are problems with speech: the patient repeats the liked phrases and stories. The growth of problems with speech leads to the inability to express their thoughts and understand someone else's speech. Deteriorating skills of reading, writing, counting, decreasing memory and attention, the ability to perform actions.
- Deep dementia. There is disorientation in space, the ability to self-service is lost. Patients stop moving and need constant care. Infections and cerebral insufficiency lead to the death of the patient.
Pick's disease - diagnosis
Peak's disease at the first stages symptomatically coincides with other diseases of the neurological and psychiatric plan. Before treating senile dementia, doctors study anamnesis, interview the patient's relatives and thoroughly examine the subject. The diagnosis of "Pick disease" neuropathologists often put only in the second stage of the disease, when the initial symptoms are added to the violations of the cognitive sphere. Differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and Pick's disease is based on the EEG, REG, transcranial ultrasound, Echo-EG and tomography methods.
Test for senile dementia
With Pick's disease, pronounced impairment of the activity of cognitive processes is observed. Others notice that the patient has worsened memory, reduced attention and thinking.
To confirm the suspicion of senile dementia and check the level of these processes, the patient can be offered two easy tests:
- Picture of the clock. An elderly man is offered to draw a watch dial. Normally, the figure should be drawn all the digits of the clock, they should be located at the same distance from each other. In the middle there should be a dot with arrows attached.
- The words. A person is asked to name as many plants and animals as possible in one minute, or as many words as possible on a particular letter. Normally, people call 15-22 words with names of plants or animals and 12-16 words per letter. If the patient named less than 10 words, he has memory impairments.
What to do with senile dementia?
Pick's disease, a treatment for which has not yet been found, is rapidly progressing and is fatal. Although the disease can not be cured, its progress can be slowed down and making the life of the sick person more comfortable. Relatives of a sick person will need a lot of patience and understanding, because dementia in Pick's disease is clearly pronounced.
A patient with dementia needs 24-hour care and supervision because of the propensity to vagrancy and commit antisocial actions. Relatives caring for the patient should monitor the intake of prescribed medications, comply with all prescriptions of the doctor, protect the patient from feelings and stress, noisy activities, conflict situations.
Senile dementia - to which doctor to apply?
The first symptoms of Pick's disease are pushing the relatives of the patient to think about the appearance of a psychiatric illness. If you suspect a diagnosis of "senile dementia," treatment, examination of such patients, the appointment of diagnostic measures and clarification of the diagnosis is performed by a neurologist who then prescribes the course of drug therapy. Further treatment can be carried out by both a neurologist and a psychiatrist.
Pick's disease - clinical recommendations
The Pick disease is often confused with Niemann Pick's disease. These two diseases have significant symptomatic differences and are similar only to names. The Niemann Pick disease, whose clinical recommendations will differ significantly from the recommendations for Pick's disease, does not apply to mental disorders and is found in children. With respect to Pick's disease, there are such clinical recommendations:
- Treatment should appoint a psychiatrist, based on the recommendations of a neurologist.
- To facilitate the patient's condition, psychologists and psychotherapists should be involved in the treatment.
- Drug therapy is mandatory, because it helps to slow the progression of the disease.
- At the last stage, the physical condition of the patient should be closely monitored: due to immobility, a number of complications may develop.
Senile dementia - treatment, drugs
Peak's disease refers to aggressive diseases that can not be corrected. At the initial stages of the disease, the patient is shown psychotherapy, visits to cognitive training, and with the progress of the disease - art therapy, a sensory room, a simulation of presence. Treatment of senile dementia with medicines allows to slow down the development of the disease, but does not have any curative effect. The treatment regimen includes:
- Memantine;
- anticholinesterase drugs: Galantamine, Choline alfoscerate, Donepezil, Rivastigmine;
- nootropics: gamma-aminobutyric acid, Piracetam and Fonturacetam;
- antipsychotics if aggressive behavior manifests itself: Chlorprotixen, Alimemazin.
How to avoid senile dementia?
Measures to prevent Pick's disease have not been developed to this day, since there are no exact causes that trigger the development of the disease. For this reason, the prevention of senile dementia is based on the well-known rules of a healthy lifestyle:
- balanced nutrition, saturated with all important vitamins and minerals;
- drinking enough fluids;
- moderate physical activity;
- moderate intellectual load;
- presence of a circle of communication;
- minimal stressful loads, calm and optimistic environment.