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World Alzheimer’s Day observed in Kochi

Photo:Vipin Chandran

SPARING A THOUGHT: The memory walk organised in connection with the World Alzheimer’s Day in Kochi on Saturday. —

KOCHI: While everybody talks about the disease of the degeneration of the brain, the Alzheimer’s disease, another disease of the degeneration of minds is affecting our society, said Kurian Joseph, judge, High Court of Kerala. He was speaking at the inauguration of the public meeting organised by the Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI) on the occasion of the World Alzheimer’s Day.

Mr. Joseph said that there had been instances of people abandoning old people to evade responsibilities. The aged live in old age homes hoping that one day their children might remember them, he said.

Dementia is perhaps a call to the society to open its inner eye, he said.

K. Babu, MLA, who presided over the function said that society should change its attitude towards the facilities provided for the aged.

Mr. Jacob Roy, national chairman, ARDSI, who welcomed the gathering, said that there wasn’t sufficient infrastructure to take care of the people affected by dementia.

There are about 3 lakh people affected by dementia in the country, he said.

Every year, over 40 lakh people worldwide are afflicted by dementia, he said.

However, the society continues to lag behind in coming up with means to take care of them.

A seminar held earlier highlighted the various issues concerning the aged affected by dementiaPhysician Dr. Manoj Jacob talked about the physical and medical problems of aging. Neurologist Dr. Mathew Abraham reminded the importance of memory clinics.

There could be many people who suffer from loss of memory due to vascular diseases or Alzhiemer’s disease. With proper intervention, such dementia could be managed.

Dr. S. Shaji spoke about the psycho-social management of dementia. He said that the family members of the patient, who are the primary care givers, often needed counselling.

He said that care givers should understand the fact that medicines for dementia treatment were not curative. They only help in retarding the progression of the disease to some extent. I

t is the depletion of acetylcholine in the brain cells that results in dementia, he said. The modern medicines available help in controlling the depletion of this chemical in the brain. There are a number of psychiatric symptoms shown by those affected by Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Sometimes the use of psychotropic drugs would be essential, but at the same time the side effects of the drug need to be kept in mind.

The care givers can actually help manage the disease with behaviour management techniques, said Dr. Shaji. This could improve the quality of life.

They need to be given emotional orientation and reality orientation like identifying people close to them by names constantly or helping them identify their place.

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