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Each specific kind of dementia has its own characteristics and its own likely symptoms.
There are more than 50 types of dementia. (Some say more than 70.) Every case of dementia is a specific kind, but very often the specific kind is not easily identified. My husband's dementia was Lewy Body. My mother's is Not Otherwise Specified -- in her case she has not been through extensive testing to try to label the kind. It is not ALZ and it is not Lewy Body. It certainly is Something but we don't know what that something is. (Nobody just has "dementia" -- it is always some kind of dementia, but sometimes the only way to know what kind is via autopsy of the brain.)
A good memory care facility has to be able to deal with all the possible symptoms of all the possible kinds of dementia. That is not as complex as it sounds. Several kinds of dementia include hallucinations. Many include paranoia. Some involve progressive loss of memory and in others the memory loss seems random. Treating hallucinations is pretty much the same no matter what kind of dementia someone has. The same with paranoia, or memory loss.
Being able to identify the particular kind of dementia can be very helpful for the treating physician, particularly as it related to drugs. And it can be helpful to caregivers in knowing which symptoms are most likely. But at home or in memory care, the symptoms have to be dealt with as they come up, regardless of the label on the disease.
Dementia is not a normal part of aging, but can occur through any brain injury, such as a car accident, stroke, etc. I am an education major, and using questions, to ask her how she feels, why she thinks this way or that, although people are not implying things, she often thinks so, and many things she says could be, but simply aren't. It's that short term memory thing again, it keeps getting in the way. Doing the vitamin thing, Super vitamin D3 and omega 3.
Since she has been home again after being in assisted living, she is perking up and doing well.
Dementia is often incorrectly referred to as "senility" or "senile dementia," which reflects the formerly widespread but incorrect belief that serious mental decline is a normal part of aging.