Old age can be different: some old people are vigorous and productive until the last breath, others change beyond recognition. Marasmus is not infrequent pathology in the modern world, bringing a lot of suffering to a dying person and most of all to his close people.
What is insanity?
Marasmus is a pathological process of complete degradation of psychophysical processes, extinction of cognitive functions. It is accompanied by brain atrophy, irreversible changes in the tissues and organs of man. Among doctors, the disease has a common name for "dry", reflecting the ongoing process of exhaustion and wilting. The disorder begins gradually, the risk group - people aged 60 years. Marasmus is of several types:
- presenilny (premature, prescient);
- senile (senile);
- alimentary (in children and adults, due to insufficient intake of protein in the body)
What is senile senility?
Old senility is the final and irreversible stage of senile dementia or senile dementia. The diagnosis is made only after 60 years, the frequency of the disease is high from 10 to 35% for all cases of mental disorders. Irreversibility of mental functions in dementia complicates the course of the disease and makes it difficult to treat. Features of female senility:
- occurs in 2 times more often than in men;
- Symptoms are more pronounced;
- delusional disorders.
Man's Marasmus:
- Less susceptibility due to shorter life expectancy compared with the female half;
- violations progress slowly;
- hypersexuality and increased excitability.
Causes of senile senility
Marasmus among the elderly is more pronounced, when in different countries for several years there were demographic pits. The predominance of the elderly part of the population clearly demonstrates the fact that dementia is a common phenomenon requiring the development of social and health programs that would help people, when the first disturbing bells come up, start taking measures to reduce the destructive processes.
The causes of senile senility:
- Marasmus and Alzheimer's disease - a close relationship between the neurogenic disease discovered by Alzheimer and the appearance of marasmus was confirmed back in 1910.
- Genetic predisposition.
- Somatic diseases (pathologies of the cardiovascular system: atherosclerosis, hypertension).
- Oncology.
- Prion proteins - foreign proteins of animal origin, coming from food can penetrate into the human nervous system and destroy it and the immune system.
- The use of psychotropic drugs.
- Pick's disease.
Stasis - symptoms and treatment
Old senility is a severe multi-organ pathology, which is the end of senile dementia . For several years the organism was subjected to destructive pathological changes, and marasmus is a deeply serious condition with pronounced symptoms. Treatment of advanced dementia does not bring results and is aimed at alleviating the patient's condition, so it is important to consult a doctor at the first signs of the disease.
Senile senility - symptoms
Who are such marasmists in society know most, because of the high frequency of the disorder. The disease manifests itself in all its "beauty" after 60 years. Early manifestation - worsens the prognosis and all the symptoms develop at a lightning speed, the later occurrence allows us to assume that the slowly progressing changes are prolonged in time. Signs of Marasmus:
- exacerbation of negative traits of character (the greedy becomes a miserly miser, slovenlyness becomes a complete lack of self-care);
- increased egocentrism - there is a growing need to control everything;
- women develop delusional disorders (complain that they want to poison or rob their relatives);
- Indifference and callousness to others;
- there is a desire to walk around in garbage dumps and store houses brought in trash;
- uncontrollable appetite;
- memory disorders (dates, events, recognition - are erased from memory);
- disorientation in space;
- cachexia - severe exhaustion.
How to treat senile senility?
Marazmatik is a person in need of maximum care, care and treatment. An important condition is the provision of the regime:
- cozy, well-known and familiar for the sick environment (it is not recommended to transport a person to unfamiliar, albeit better living conditions);
- encouragement of physical activity (participation in cleaning, cooking, simple household chores);
- daytime sleep;
- joint walks with the patient in the park;
- intake of protein, micronutrient and vitamin rich foods (fish, vegetables, greens, fruits).
Drug therapy is mainly symptomatic and is aimed at treating the underlying disease:
- Neuroprotectors - nootropil, mexidol, cinnarezin.
- Calcium antagonists - verapamil, cerebrolysin, dilhart.
- Antidepressants - azafen, tryptophan, preparations based on St. John's wort.
- Antipsychotics - clozapine, haloperidol, dicarbine.
Old senility - what should relatives do?
A marasmatic is a person in need of careful care, care and observation. On the shoulders of the family falls a huge responsibility, which requires a high physical, moral and emotional endurance. What to do to relatives if their loved one has fallen into marasmus, recommendations:
- creating comfort;
- First aid kit, cutting, stitching objects - to remove them to inaccessible places;
- control of medicinal products intake;
- to purchase a bracelet on which information about the patient suffering from marasmus (name, age, address and telephone number of the relative) will be written;
- hang out instructions for the patient throughout the apartment;
- take care of the will;
- if you strongly irritate the patient, remember that once it was a loved one who became a "child";
- treatment of relatives of the patient to a psychologist will help to see the situation in a different light.