How to Deal with Dementia

Written by Sunrise on KGMB9 - sunrise@kgmb9.com

June 09, 2008 07:13 AM

DR THOMAS: This morning I've got Dr Gary Johnson with me, he's from the Straub Clinic, and one of Hawaii's leading geriatricians. Nice to have you here. Nice to have you coming in and sitting down. I've been really eager to chat with you about dementia. And where your thinking is on people who are having memory problems and what you think about the latest medications that are out there.

DR. JOHNSON: Very good questions. I've been evaluating people for memory loss for many years, so I've kind of honed a few things, and a lot of the information that we've had and some of the research that has come from U.H. is that there are so many cases of people with memory loss that never get evaluated in our community, in part because people, despite all the education and the media attention, people still think that memory loss is just something to be expected.

DR. THOMAS: Alright, so point number one really, from the research at U.H., is sort of saying, don't just accept memory problems as part of aging. There could be, you need to get evaluated, because there could be something the doctor could do to help.

DR. JOHNSON: Absolutely, and that's kind of my mantra over the years is that just don't accept this as a normal part of aging, because it's not.

DR. THOMAS: You know, everybody it seems from the age of 28 up, has these little moments of "Oh, I forgot this, or I forgot that phone number." And when you're talking about memory problems, you're talking about problems that are interfering with a person's life.

DR. JOHNSON: Absolutely, and that we all have memory lapses which may get more prominent as we get older, a lot of name-finding issues, concentration abilities, the time it takes to learn a new task, all these things change and probably do change with aging, but the kind of memory loss that we're concerned about is the progressive loss of short-term memory, um you know self-care skills that really cause a person not to be able to function normally.

DR. THOMAS: Right. And that really needs to be evaluated too.

DR JOHNSON: Absolutely.

DR. THOMAS: So um, how about treatment? What do you, of all the medications out there, what is your view on the value of those medications?

DR. JOHNSON: I do place a lot of value on the medications. We've had two different classes of medications to treat people with memory loss, people with dementia, that have been evaluated as such for several years. And I have found that with both classes of medications, although we don't see a return to normal, and that's one thing I really have to educate people, so don't expect people to get back to their normal self.

DR. THOMAS: There is no cure.

DR. JOHNSON: There is no cure. There's absolutely no cure at this point. But I have seen in very many instances a very gratifying stablization, where people that I know without the medication have declined to the point where they could not longer live independently, have been able to stay in their homes or you know maybe two or three years longer than they probably would have before we had these medications.

DR. THOMAS: So that is one of the good reasons why you ought to pay attention and not just accept this as a part of aging.

DR. JOHNSON: Exactly. I mean it's important to know anyway, but with these medications, it's even more important, because we do have some things we can do about it. It's important to because you know every once in awhile in doing the evaluation, I will find other kinds of illnesses that can be treated in other ways, that could be causing the memory loss.

DR. THOMAS: Great. So, kind of, what I'm hearing from you, and it matches pretty closely with how I'm seeing it too, is there's a lot we can do to help a person with dementia have a good quality of life, you know stay at home, and be around people they love and it makes it all worthwhile to get to the bottom of what's going on. Thanks, Dr. Johnson.

Last Updated ( June 09, 2008 07:13 AM )

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(For all information and resources related to aging and caregiving)

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Phone: 961-8626
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http://www.co.maui.hi.us/departments/Housing/aging.htm