Dementia symptoms

Common symptoms of dementia

Each person experiences dementia in their own individual way. Different types of dementia also tend to affect people differently, especially in the early stages.

However, there are some common early signs and symptoms of dementia. 

These include:

• Memory loss – for example, forgetting things that happened recently, problems with recall.
• Difficulty concentrating, planning or organising – for example, struggling to make decisions, solve problems or follow a series of steps (such as cooking a meal).
• Problems with language and communication – for example, difficulties finding the right words, struggling to follow a conversation.
• Misunderstanding what is being seen – for example, misidentifying things, struggling to judge distance (such as on stairs), and misinterpreting reflections, or hallucinating.
• Being confused about time or place – for example, losing track of the time or date, or becoming confused about where they are, or what time of their life they are in.
• Mood changes or difficulty controlling emotions – for example, becoming unusually anxious, irritable, sad or frightened, losing interest in things and personality changes.
   

Symptoms as dementia progresses

As a person’s dementia progresses they are likely to experience additional symptoms:

• Aggressive behaviour – as a person’s dementia progresses, they may sometimes behave in ways that are physically or verbally aggressive.
• Walking about - walking repeatedly around at home or leaving the house during the day or night.
• Lack of insight - when a person with dementia is unable to recognise changes in their behaviour and emotions.
• Sleep problems – As well as disruption to their body clock, a person with dementia may sleep more in the day and have difficulty sleeping at night.
• Delusions – strongly believing something that is false, which can also take the form of paranoia.