dementia symptoms In young adults (up to 40 twelvemonths of age) who were previously of normal intelligence, it is real rare to develop dementia without other characteristics of neurological disease, or without features of disease elsewhere in the body. Most cases of progressive cognitive mental disorder in this age group are got by psychiatric illness , dementia symptoms alcoholic beverage or other drugs, or metabolic noise . notwithstanding, certain genetic disorders can cause true neurodegenerative dementedness at this age . these include familial Alzheimer's disease, SCA17 (dominant heritage) ; adrenoleukodystrophy (X linked) ; Gaucher's disease type 3, metachromatic leukodystrophy, Niemann-Pick disease type C, pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration, Tay-Sachs disease and Wilson's disease (all recessive allele). Wilson's disease is particularly significant since cognition can meliorate with treatment . dementia symptoms

Tags: dementia, dementia sign, symptoms of dementia

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By Lord Walton of Detchant – 2nd February 2011

Lord Walton of Detchant calls for clarity in determining how multiple sclerosis care will be commissioned, following proposed restructures to the health service.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease of the central nervous system involving the brain, spinal cord and sometimes the optic nerves. it is the commonest neurological disease affecting adults, involving approximately two million people worldwide and about 100,000 people in the UK.

Symptoms vary in severity; sometimes the disease is progressive but more often it is a relapsing and remitting disorder, in that episodes of weakness, numbness or visual failure occur but then recover wholly or in part, only for further such events to occur at a later date, often resulting ultimately in progressive disability.

Since the introduction of interferons in treatment some 20 years ago, these drugs and many more discovered since have been shown to be effective in reducing the severity of symptoms, in promoting remission and in delaying progression of the disease, particularly in the relapsing and remitting variety of the condition. These are so-called ‘disease-modifying drugs’.

Unfortunately, recent evidence shows that only about 12 per cent of patients with multiple sclerosis in the UK are currently receiving these remedies, and a report published by the department of health on medicines’ usage ranked the UK 13 out of 14 comparative countries with regard to MS drugs.

This finding is not consistent with the ten-year national service framework launched by the government in 2005 relating to the treatment of long-term conditions, and it is clear that substantial improvement in the availability of these drugs is needed.

The department of health introduced a risk-sharing scheme, enabling manufacturers of these drugs to share the cost of providing them while research was undertaken over a period of ten years to ascertain their long-term cost-effectiveness. it is unclear how future MS services will be commissioned, as between the new National Health Commissioning Board and local GP consortia, and this also needs to be clarified.

Lord Walton of Detchant Kt TD MA MD DSc FRCP FMedSci is a former consultant neurologist and professor of neurology. He was elevated to the peerage in 1989 and sits as a crossbencher.

Athletes who receive repeated blows to the head could be at greater risk of developing dementia later in life, according to a new study.

Scientists said they have found the strongest evidence yet that repeated concussions could cause nerve-degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Professional rugby players and boxers are just two of the groups who may be suffering long-term damage from their chosen careers.

The study provides the first evidence that repetitive head trauma in collision sports could be linked to the development of a motor neuron disease

Researchers from the University of Rochester in New York studied autopsies of 12 athletes who died with brain or neurological disease.

All had a newly characterized disease called chronic traumaticencephalopathy, or CTE, in which dementia set in years after repeatedconcussions.

Three of the men were also diagnosed with ALS, a member of a familyof diseases called motor neuron disease, which cause progressivelyworse paralysis.

The researchers looked specifically for a protein called TDP-43.They found it in the brain and in the spinal cords of the men – whichcould explain the symptoms.

Scientists know that damaging one nerve can sometimes set off acascade of other nerves dying, for reasons that remain poorlyunderstood and TDP-43 could be involved.

Experts in brain injury said the study, published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, pointed to new areas of research and possible ways to prevent long-term damage from concussions.

‘If you could somehow give a person a drug, you could potentially prevent an illness like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,’ commentor Dr Jeffrey Bazarian said.

Baseball players Lou Gehrig (left) and Babe Ruth at the Yankee Stadium in 1939. A link has been found between concussions and ALS also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The sportsman had this form of motor neuron disease.

The findings also point to an urgent need to monitor soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom suffer brain injuries from explosions, accidents and blows to the head.

‘This is the first pathological evidence that repetitive head trauma experienced in collision sports might be associated with the development of a motor neuron disease,’ said lead author Dr Ann McKee of Boston University School of Medicine.

Drugs including the hormone progesterone, monoclonal antibodies and the antibiotic minocycline are being studied to see if they can stop the process of nerve destruction that follows injuries such as a blow to the head or stroke.

David Hovda, director of the UCLA Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, said: ‘I think it does is raise worries that individuals who had a career of exposure to repeat concussions … have a greater likelihood of developing motor neuron disease.’