Key Differences Between Dementia and Mental Illness
It is often hard to determine what is happening when an elderly person begins having signs and symptoms of dementia and/or mental illness. They can be very similar, and many times overlap or combine making diagnosis and treatment difficult. There are some significant differences, and we will explore both briefly to help make them clear. Starting with the nature of each disease; dementia is a medical condition that affects the brain, and mental illness is a change in feeling, understanding, and behavior. The ages of onset are different as dementia usually only affects the elderly and mental illness can occur at any age. The progression of dementia is typically gradual with stages of decline and mental illness may occur suddenly.
Dementia is defined as various symptoms associated with memory loss, impaired judgement, and cognitive impairments that interfere with living. It includes neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Lewy Body, and Vascular Dementias. They have a gradual onset, usually late in life and progression can be slow with some faster periods throughout the disease. Most common symptoms are memory loss, difficulty completing tasks, confused communication, disorientation, poor judgement and withdrawal from social activities.
Mental Illness is defined as a broad range of disorders that affect thinking, feeling, behavior, and or mood. Disorders include Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia and many more. Sadly, mental illness affects mostly younger adults but can occur at any age. The onset can be sudden or progressively worse with plateaus. Mental illness tends to disrupt relationships and daily function, but it usually does not include cognitive decline like memory loss.
Recognizing mental illness in a senior can be very challenging but here are some guidelines to help differentiate and help them get appropriate care. Persistent sadness or withdraw from previous enjoyable activities lasting greater than 2 weeks. Extreme mood fluctuations, having frequent swings in mood from happy to sad or angry. Excessive worries or fears, some can be real things like fear of going to the hospital. Delusions which are experiencing false beliefs like you are putting medication in their food or hallucinations which are experiencing sensory perceptions like hearing voices or seeing things that are not real. Changes in appetite or sleep patterns and suicidal thought. Any of these symptoms could indicate your loved one is having a mental health issue but many dementia patients also experience some of these symptoms as well. Either way, medications can help you, talk to your doctor or nurse practitioner.