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Paper explains about Neurology for the behavioural changes that were observed following the brain damage

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The patient has been suffering from Alzheimer’s from quite some time. There has been continuous mental decline leading to difficulty in remembering, there are also delusional tendencies, trouble understanding and interpreting images and absolute inability to create memories and connections. There is also mental confusion and this often leads to behavioural traits such as aggression, irritability and abusive tendencies. The patient suffers from changes in personality. The changes lead to restlessness; hallucinations and paranoia are also very common.

 

1.            The region of the brain that was damaged and how the damage occurred.

Alzheimer is known to affect the back half of the brain; it destroys neurons and the connectivity that the synapses provide. Connectivity in the brain is lost and gradually the cerebral cortex (youtube.com 2019).  The shape of the basal ganglia also changes with when one is affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the cerebrum and is composed of folded gray matter that is responsible for brain consciousness.

 

2.            The functions controlled by that portion of the brain

The damage of speech and lack of control over posture and movement occurs due to damage to the basal ganglia (Functional Neuroanatomy. 2019).  The main functions that are controlled by the cerebral cortex are that it helps to interpret, speech, reasoning, vision and fine control of movement. The functions that are controlled by the cerebral cortex are associated with sensory areas and motor functional areas. Sensory areas have ability to receive input from the thalamus and process that information. Motor areas like the primary motor cortex and the pre motor cortex regulate voluntary movement. These two areas are not that severely hampered in the disease. However, there is major impairment of memory, planning organising

 

3.            The behavioural changes that were observed following the brain damage.

Many behavioural changes can be observed on brain damage and due to onset of the disease and these are forgetfulness and lack of concentration is the beginning symptoms.  There is often irritability caused due to inability to handle the situation in hand .There are instances of  mental confusion and this often leads to behavioural traits such as aggression, irritability and abusive tendencies( Cho ,  2019).  The patient suffers from changes in personality. The changes lead to restlessness; hallucinations and paranoia. There are often extreme mood swings and often loss of speech as the patient is found to struggle with adequate words to express (alzheimers.org.uk 2019). Forgetting recent conversations or not being able to recognise faces are common symptoms in this kind of diseases. Changes in mood can become very much startling and the patient can turn from passive to highly hostile. Memory lapses become extremely common and due to this, there is lack of orientation that occurs and all these finally cumulate to irritability, depression and finally hostility.

4.            If and what treatment is available for the patient.

There is only symptomatic treatment available for these dieses. It has to start with diagnosis through physical and neurological tests to check reflexes and balance and co-ordination. There are also some excellent forms of brain imaging technology that can be used in the case of patients who are suspected with the onset of the disease. These brain images are helpful in diagnosis.  These are ways by which the doctor can be completely sure about the line of treatment. Spect imaging analysing  helps to know  the extent to which the disease has spread (youtube.com 2019).  Symptomatic treatment for advanced patients involves use of drugs like cholinesterase inhibitors which cause least side effects include Donepezil (Aricept), Galantamine (Razadyne) and Rivastigmine (Exelon) (mayoclinic.org . 2019).

However, the most important aspect is to provide a supportive and care oriented environment. There is also the need to keep trying to boost memory through audio visual videos,  old photographs, reminders in the mobile devices are all forms of supportive care that can be provided( www.mayoclinic.org . 2019).

 

5.            Have caretaker of patient ask at least 3 questions that the medical professional will address.

The caretaker of the patient is vital to his well-being and there are some questions that help him to respond to the illness better such as:

•             What other health complication can arise from Alzheimer’s disease?

•             What are the medicines and what are its side effects?

•             What alternative supportive care can be provided by me to improve the patient’s condition?

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