Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. Alzheimer’s cannot be cured. It is a degenerative disease that can cause death. It is important to be aware of the signs of Alzheimer’s for early detection. Here is a list of the stages of Alzheimer’s and their pattern of impairment.

The first stage is pre-dementia. As in most cases of Alzheimer’s the very first signs are mild cognitive difficulties; the most noticeable being memory loss. The individual will start to show signs of difficulty in remembering recent events or the inability to store newer abilities or memory. Minor problems with planning, attentiveness, abstract thinking and flexibility are also signs. The individual can also suffer from loss of meanings of memories or concepts of relationships. At this stage, you can often observe signs of apathy; which will remain a constant sign all throughout the disease. The 2^nd stage is early dementia. There will start to be an increase in the earlier mild impairments with addition of language difficulties, difficulty in movement, perception and executive functions. There will also be signs of a more prominent memory loss. Individuals will start to suffer from a shrinking vocabulary and the fluency in words will also decrease. At this stage, the affected individual will have problems communicating their ideas to others. There might also be some problems with fine motor activities like drawing or writing. At this stage, the individual is still able to perform daily tasks independently, but will need assistance in them more cognitively demanding tasks. The 3^rd stage is moderate dementia. This is the stage that will start to hinder independence. The individuals will now not be able to perform their common daily tasks. The individual’s difficulty in speech will become more evident because of their inability to recall their vocabulary. Their writing and reading skills will start to be lost and their more complex motor functions will be less coordinated as the Alzheimer’s progresses. Because of this, the most important thing to remember at this stage is safety of the individual and to minimize the risk of falls. It is at this phase that the individual might start to forget relatives or distant family members. The long-term memory of individuals starts to deteriorate even further. There are also behavioral changes that become more apparent. The individuals will start to wander, have sudden outbursts or aggression, irritability or crying. 30% of individuals who suffer from Alzheimer’s show signs of illusionary misidentifications and delusion. For family and relatives, who go through a lot of stress and are not able to take care of their loved ones, are advised to put their loved ones in an assisted living center. The last stage of Alzheimer’s is advance dementia. At this stage, the individual will be totally dependent on his/her caregiver. Speech is reduced to short phrases and sometimes even single words. Fortunately, despite problems in oral communication, the individual can still understand emotional signals. The individuals will feel more apathetic and exhausted, but will still have aggressive outbursts from time to time. Ultimately, individuals will not be able to perform simple tasks without help. Their muscle mass will start to deteriorate and they will eventually become bedridden.

Alzheimer’s is considered a terminal disease, but the cause of death is usually an external factor like pneumonia or pressure ulcers, not the disease itself.