8^th International Conference on
Dementia and Dementia Care

Alzheimer’s is most common type of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a chromic neurodegenerative disorder. Patient of Alzheimer’s shows early symptoms of short term memory and later progresses to problems in language, disorientation. Causes of Alzheimer’s are not clear yet, but 70% of risks are associated with genetics. There are no existing treatments to reverse or stop Alzheimer’s. Most of patients with Alzheimer’s are above 65 years of age but 4-5% cases are of early onset Alzheimer’s. It’s still one of the costly diseases. Alzheimer’s disease has been key topics in neurology conferences and dementia conferences. Separate Alzheimer’s conferences has been arranged to make aware world for its consequences. In 2016, hundreds of conferences has main topic as Alzheimer’s disease as it contributes to 60-70% cases of dementia. Several countries governments are taking initiative in Alzheimer’s congress such as UK, USA, Canada, France having high ratio of deaths due to Alzheimer’s patients and other dementias.

Vascular dementia is second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s. Reduced blood supply to brain which causes problems in supply of oxygen and nutrients to brain, causes series of minor attacks. Vascular dementia can’t be detected till it has series of attacks. Death of brain cells causes problems in memory, thinking and reasoning. There are various types of vascular dementia such as Stroke-related dementia, Post-stroke dementia, Single-infarct and multi-infarct dementia, subcortical dementia. High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol level, diabetes are some factors which help in prevention of vascular dementia. Vascular dementia is common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease contributing to nearly 20% cases making it significant in discussions of dementia congress.

Alpha synuclein protein depositions in neurons cause Lewy body dementia.  Symptoms of Lewy body dementia are hallucinations, rigidness in movement. In Lewy body dementia, disruption among brain cells occur, after one year of observation and progression in symptoms with Parkinson’s disease the diagnosis of Lewy body dementia is possible. If cognitive problems occur with a year of movement problems          doctors declares it as Lewy body dementia and if not then it is declared as Parkinson’s disease. There are not specific stages as Lewy body dementia is progressive but early stage and late stage symptoms are found in literature. Lewy body dementia is common in men and in all races it’s equally found. It is normal kind of dementia after Alzheimer's illness and having same cases as vascular dementia making it critical in dialogs of dementia meetings.

Frontotemporal dementia is broad term for group of disorders caused by progressive nerve cell loss in the frontal and temporal lobes of brain.  Spindle neurons have 70% loss in Frontotemporal dementia patients while other neurons remain unchanged. Temporal lobes have specific function such as right temporal lobe involved in recognition of faces and known objects. Left temporal lobe involved in meaning of names and words of objects. Frontotemporal dementia includes changes in behaviour, personality and difficulty in speech. It is significant cause of dementia in younger peoples. MRI scans may show the frontal and temporal lobe atrophy.

Mixed dementia is the coexistence of multiple dementias simultaneously. Alzheimer’s and Vascular dementia coexistence is most dangerous type of dementia. In some cases it will be really challenging to diagnose it as most of symptoms with resemble to Alzheimer’s and in different cases sign of mixed dementia will be there clearly. 94% of mixed dementia patients were first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Mixed dementia symptoms fluctuate with the areas of brain get affected. Currently there is no specific drug for mixed dementia but mostly physicians prescribe on the basis of patient conditions and normally the Alzheimer’s medicine is given to patients. Mixed dementia has been tricky topics of discussions in dementia meetings and dementia conferences since there is no legitimate technique to diagnose and no particular signs are there.

Stages of Dementia

            The Term “Stages of dementia” describes about how someone gets affected by dementia over the years. Although each stage is different discussing about this topic helps caregivers to understand the patient’s situation and plan how to care. They are classified into three stages classification: early stage dementia, mid-stage dementia and late-stage dementia.

In The first stage of dementia the signs and symptoms are found to be faint. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the earliest stage. The symptoms of early stages vary a lot based on the type of dementia. In case of mid stage the changes in the persons with dementia are obvious to people close to them, though outsiders may not notice them. Daily life and relationships are affected. They need more help because they are either unable to do tasks or have lost interest in everything. Frustration, anger, mood swings, and conflicts are common in mid stage dementia. In the late stage the patient is affected in all facet of life. They always become dependent for all activities. Their health gets worse in, multiple ways. The dementia conference also enlightens the people about stages of dementia.

 Dementia caused by various conditions can be reversed with appropriate treatment. The “reversible dementia” are the disorders found with cognitive or behavioral symptoms. These symptoms are not enough to fulfill the clinical criteria for dementia .The causes of potentially reversible dementia are drugs or alcohol abuse, space- occupying lesions, adverse effect of drugs, normal pressure hydrocephalus and metabolic conditions results in endocrinal conditions like hypothyroidism and nutritional condition like B-12 deficiency. Depression is the most common cause for reversible dementia. The potentially reversible dementias should be identified and considered for treatment.

The complete detailed assessment of dementia in needed to exclude similar symptoms showing to such diseases such as depression which is curable. It’s necessary to provide time to dementia patients to plan future and make them literate about the possible affects in future. There are various tests for diagnosing dementia such as Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Mental Score test, Trail making test.  MMSE test include series of exercises in which various problems are checked with memory, speech, ability to respond. Blood test is also done to check levels of vitamin B12 and thyroid hormones which may be responsible. Brain scans such as MRI and CT scans used for checking brain tumour and strokes in vascular dementia. Neurology gatherings talked about rigorously on dementia diagnosis as its mistaking for different maladies like Parkinson’s' disease in which they discover in which they establish new methodologies and techniques for analysis as dementia society is in  dire need of dependable diagnosis methods.

Causes of dementia depend on areas of brain affected due to dementia. Dementia is progressive in nature; one of most common type of progressive dementia is Lewy body dementia. There are four primary form of reversible dementia: hypothyroidism, vitamin B12 lack, neurosyphillis and Lyme disease. Head injury, stroke or brain tumour may cause dementia. Age is one of the most important risk factor of dementia, 65years exceeding persons has more chances of having dementia. Ageing and genetic inheritance from ancestors is beyond control but other risk factors such as hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, hyperthoiroidism, alcohol use in large amounts, smoking can be prevented or controlled. Few risk factors can be prevented with healthy lifestyle and proper diet. Causes and risk elements have contributed enormously in dementia research and discovered new measures in dementia conferences.

Dementia patients need assistance and full time care as much as drugs. Some common care practices in dementia are assistance in food and fluid consumption, pain management, social engagement ensuring safety and security of dementia patients. Main aim of care practices is to ensure cut in hospitalisation and psychotropic drugs. Understanding patient’s mood changes, particular behaviour, speech problems and help in rectify them. Dementia patients need end of life care so qualified nursing staff is needed. Few care practices which are used are indoor and outdoor activities, visual and audio stimulation, art therapy. Care practices in dementia have been critical to partake in international dementia meetings. In need to evolve in dementia care world gathering and genuine talks on dementia care is required.

Dementia is advancing and incapacitating disease that affects more number of people around the world. Diagnosis of the patient with dementia makes a frightening scenario for those affected by syndrome, their family members and caretakers. Insufficient knowledge of its symptoms and supports available, conceive us to see inefficient and ineffective approach to provide services to the people with dementia. Better understanding about public awareness of dementia aids more effective health and social policies. The dementia conference discusses Public awareness to achieve higher rate of early diagnosis and to decrease the distress among the patient, family and caregiver. 

Case reports in dementia supports the comprehensive report of causes, symptoms, treatment and possible outcome. Each case report distinguishes in conditions such as age, family background, treatment given and effects of it. This all helps to design, categorise the future aspects of disease. Case report will be highly helpful for the researchers to develop new methods and for physicians to develop diagnosis of dementia patients. Case reports in dementia gives some thought regarding diagnosis, treatment and level of cure perhaps conceivable preventions to be taken moreover. Be that as it may, most recognized case reports have been talked about in past dementia conferences have been extremely useful to researchers to carry on with their work.

Rigorous clinical trials on dementia drugs are continuing in USA and UK. The most of drugs are in II and III phases. The most problems pharmaceutical companies facing are inadequate participants for trials. Most of clinical trials are done in specific areas are Amyloid beta plaques, the immune system, Tau tangles. Dementia conferences exhibit clinical trial medications and offers positivity to new prospects in curing dementia.

The existing drugs such as Cholinesterase inhibitors and Memantine are usually used to treat dementia and some other antidepressant also used with the treatments. Drugs are prescribed on the basis of severity of symptoms, such as mild-moderate dementia and moderate-severe dementia. New medications for dementia being developed in 2014/2015, 31% were named symptoms modifying. There are many developments are going on in drug discovery of dementia as old treatments are unable to stop the progression of dementia. Most associations share their exploration on new medications for dementia in dementia conferences to get higher esteem to their items. This gets to be distinctly gainful to different geriatric doctors to redesign themselves with such medications and progressing possibilities by going to dementia conferences. Such dementia meetings will help researchers to know target areas for drug development in dementia and work toward it.

To treat dementia it needs new drug compounds and animal models for guaranteeing safety and effectiveness of drugs. Major cause of dementia is genetics, dementia occur due to genetic factors for such dementias transgenic and gene targeted models are used. Animal models contribute as model organism similar to human i.e. homologous models showing exceptional results that matches conditions in dementia patients. The most commonly used animal models are transgenic mice model, zebra fish model, Drosophila melanogaster model. Drosophila melanogaster models are used in neuroimaging techniques. All these models immensely help in new research and discoveries of dementia related methods and drugs. A few global dementia conference arguments have indicated animal model’s significance in diagnosing pharmacological impacts.

Advancement in treatment in dementia is needed in understanding under laying causes of dementia. Reminiscence therapy has shown good effects on dementia patients. Dementia is one of the most costly disease in world, this therapy is easy to conduct and inexpensive. Reminiscence therapy uses past incidences and encourage patients to write and explain past incidences which helps in maintaining mental health. As depression can be one of most causes of dementia, psychotherapy helps such patients immensely. Dementia care through cloud technology helps patients in keeping track of their conditions and progress rate, supporting staff and planning in daily care in dementia. Advancement in such therapies using technology and natural therapies will help physicians to treat dementia effectively. New progressions have been subject of dementia meetings and prime wellspring of learning with respect to Dementia, these dementia gatherings has taken one stage nearer to dementia cure.