Alcoholic dementia often overlooked

Connecticut Post Staff

Q: "What is alcoholic dementia? What are its signs and symptoms? How different is it from other forms of dementia? Does it progress in symptoms? Does it continue if a person stops drinking?"
A: The above are all questions asked during my recent public dementia lecture.

Alcoholic dementia is often an overlooked type of memory dysfunction. It is estimated that about 8 percent of people in the U.S. over age 65 may have an alcohol abuse problem. Sixty percent of the elderly drink and 5 to 10 percent are binge drinkers. It may be hard to believe, but Medicare, which is the major insurance for patients over 65, spends more on alcohol-related problems than on treatment for heart attacks. Unfortunately, doctors fail to recognize this type of dementia more than 60 percent of the time. Families and spouses also do not seek medical attention as frequently as with other forms of dementia.

Before going over the signs and symptoms of alcoholic dementia, let's remind everyone what the acceptable amount of alcohol is for a person over 65. It is actually different for men and women. Women can safely have a four-ounce glass of wine, bottle of beer or one two-ounce drink of hard liquor daily. Men can have double that. Anything more is considered excessive. It is believed that the aging liver cannot process alcohol as effectively as the liver of a younger person.

To diagnose dementia, one has to have memory loss and it has to be severe enough to affect......read the whole story

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