Mental health counselor Rachna Buxani writes on dementia.
Published: Sat 6 Aug 2016, 12:00 AM
Last updated: Sat 6 Aug 2016, 2:00 AM
Mental health counselor Rachna Buxani writes on dementia aka neuro cognitive disorders and how different it is from a Phase of Life problem:
"70-year-old Mrs. S complains that she's finding it increasingly difficult to do things that she would normally find easy to do - like planning and organising things around the home or recalling recent events, and has to now rely heavily on list making to remember things.
In addition, Mrs. S feels sad most of the time, has lost interest in activities that she previously found fun, has lost significant weight and doesn't sleep well. Lately, she's tired a lot finds it difficult to get out of bed and get things done.
Mrs. S may be suffering from what is known as dementia or a neuro cognitive disorder (NCD) which tends to affect attention, memory, learning, executive functioning like planning, decision making etc., language, social cognition and perceptual motor abilities in individuals. She also seems to have a coexisting condition of depression. individuals over 60 can be greatly affected by NCD.
According to the DSM 5, prevalence rates of dementia among people over the age of 60 is about 1% to 2%, but jumps to 30% by the age of 85. Mrs. Y, who is also 70 years old, comes in to see me and is complaining of feeling low. the last of her three daughters recently got married and left home.
She complains of feeling very lonely and tired. She does not enjoy doing anything and often finds herself in tears. Mrs. Y, who used to love going out and in most cases was the life of a party, has now retreated into being very quiet and not wanting to go out. Mrs. Y is probably going through what the DSM 5 classifies as a Phase of Life Problem, and is finding it hard to adjust to her life without her children being around.
The DSM has 5 codes that refer to problems that people might be facing and are affecting them but cannot be deemed as mental disorders. Even though Mrs. Y presents some depressive symptoms, they are not enough to qualify as a Major Depressive Disorder.
Mrs. Y's presenting problems and final diagnosis are very different from Mrs. X's. As clinicians, we have to assess the severity of the symptoms of client who come to seek help in order to guide treatment. this is key in order to successfully help clients deal with issues that are affecting them".
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