5 warning signs that can indicate dementia

5 warning signs that can indicate dementia

Bruce Willis’ family’s announcement on Wednesday that the 67-year-old actor has dementia has not only shocked but worried his admirers.

• Also read: Actor Bruce Willis suffers from dementia, family announces

• Also read: What is the frontotemporal dementia that Bruce Willis suffers from?

Mr. Willis also has one of the rarer forms of dementia, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which can affect behavior and speech. It accounts for only 2% of diagnoses.

Alzheimer’s disease, on the other hand, is the most common form of dementia: it accounts for three out of four cases.

Here are 5 warning signs that can indicate the presence of this disease.

1. Give money

Giving money to strangers could be a warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

That’s according to a recent study linking financial altruism to the early stages of the disease.

“Difficulty managing money is considered one of the early warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease, and this finding supports that notion,” says Dr. Duke Han, a professor of neuropsychology at USC who led the study.

2. Changes in humor

Researchers found that people with the condition were more likely to enjoy watching slapstick, absurd, or satirical comedy than other people of the same age.

Watching classic slapstick comedies like Mr. Bean could be another sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the 2015 study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, people with the disease start favoring slapstick jokes nine years before they experience the typical symptoms of dementia.

The study also found that people with FTD were more likely to find the tragic events funny.

3. Dressing unkemptly

Dressing untidy, struggling to match clothes, and wearing clothes that aren’t appropriate for the weather could be another sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

At least that’s what a recent study published in Sociology of Health and Illness in 2018 suggests.

4. Restricted driving

Memory disorders can make Alzheimer’s patients bad drivers.

The disease impairs motor skills, memory and thought processes, slowing their reaction time and preventing them from parking properly.

A study published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy in 2021 suggests that people with the disease are more likely to drive slowly and make sudden changes in direction.

The team used these results to develop a model that can predict whether a person has Alzheimer’s based on their driving skills.

The model correctly estimated nine times out of ten whether a person had the disease.

5. Swear

Not having a filter and swearing in inappropriate situations can be another red flag.

People usually filter their speech so as not to use inappropriate expressions in front of children, for example. This filter weakens with illness, allowing people with FTD to utter more profanity.

According to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, people with FTD are more likely to use the word “f**k” when asked about words that start with “f.”

Their findings were published in the journal Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology in 2010.