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Early signs of dementia, from falls to personality changes and driving difficulties

Memory loss is not the only early warning sign of dementia conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. Experts describe other symptoms to watch for

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A driver with cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer’s disease can get lost, react too quickly or too slowly, or - worst case - have an accident. Photo: Shutterstock
This is the 48th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope.
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Dementia is not all about memory loss. The condition comes with a host of symptoms, from trouble finding words to loss of taste. Neither is memory loss the only early sign that something may be amiss. Dementia drops a number of hints on its way in.

American writer and psychotherapist Amy Bloom describes in her memoir In Love – about her husband’s early-onset dementia – the earliest, almost unseen signs that all was not well.

Her husband grew confused over the communications he received regarding a book club he loved going to. She would hear him complaining about all the emails that came in and the schedule changes. He went to meetings on the wrong night and forgot where meetings were on others.

Bloom was shocked some time later to find a message on her husband’s phone – by then she had taken to checking it – from a man who her husband swore had moved away and was no longer in the book club. But he was.

Falls can be another early warning sign of the onset of dementia. Photo: Shutterstock
Falls can be another early warning sign of the onset of dementia. Photo: Shutterstock

Looking back, I can recall little indications that all was not well in my mother’s brain as dementia began to set in, too. She forgot words, but slid the wrong word in for the right one with such ease you almost did not notice.

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