Signs and symptoms of dementia
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Signs and symptoms of dementia

Malarvizhi Babu Sandilyan Consultant in old age psychiatry, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Reading, England
Tom Dening Professor of dementia research, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England

The clinical features of dementia are usually considered in two groups: cognitive and non-cognitive symptoms. Among cognitive symptoms, problems with memory are typical of most forms of dementia, but problems with language and executive functioning are also prevalent. Non-cognitive symptoms is a somewhat unsatisfactory general term for a group of problems that include mood disorders, psychotic symptoms and various other changes in behaviour. In assessment and management, it is important to look for underlying causes of symptoms and try to understand the perspective of the individual with dementia, because their behaviour may be communicating an important message.

Nursing Standard. 29, 41, 42-51. doi: 10.7748/ns.29.41.42.e9440

Correspondence

tom.dening@nottingham.ac.uk

Peer review

All articles are subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software.

Received: 27 July 2014

Accepted: 17 November 2014

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