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Am I Likely To Get Alzheimer S Or Dementia On The Basis Of Memory Lapses Being Experienced On Account Of Anxiety And Depression?
I am 42 years old. I have a chemical imbalance that causes depression and anxiety. I have been on medications since I was 15. My memory is progressively getting worse to where I forget things, have a hard time processing things I hear, remembering what I am doing, I feel like I am in a daze and many of my memories are gone. 3 years ago I had ECT Treatments to help with a severe depression that I was in and my memory was very effected at that point. I was told it would only affect my short term memory but I lost many memories of my children growing up, many years of my life are gone. I have pieces that come back here and there. Now I am just dealing with knowing what I am doing most days on a day to day basis. I do have fibromyalgia so I do have a foggy brain but I worry that something else is really wrong and that I am going to end up with dementia or Alzheimers or something way before my time. What should I do?
Wed, 22 Jan 2014
Hi,
Thank you for posting your query.
You need to be evaluated by a neurologist and a neuro-psychologist to determine the diagnosis. Your symptoms could be due to mild cognitive impairment (MCI). As you suspect, in about one third of patients, MCI would progress to dementia.
In your case, since you had depression, you could also be suffering from pseudo-dementia, where we expect improvement once depression is well treated.
Detailed evaluation would help.
I hope my answer helps. Please get back if you have any follow up queries or if you require any additional information.
Wishing you good health,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology)
Senior Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Click on this link to ask me a DIRECT QUERY: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
My BLOG: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.in
Thank you for posting your query.
You need to be evaluated by a neurologist and a neuro-psychologist to determine the diagnosis. Your symptoms could be due to mild cognitive impairment (MCI). As you suspect, in about one third of patients, MCI would progress to dementia.
In your case, since you had depression, you could also be suffering from pseudo-dementia, where we expect improvement once depression is well treated.
Detailed evaluation would help.
I hope my answer helps. Please get back if you have any follow up queries or if you require any additional information.
Wishing you good health,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology)
Senior Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, India
Click on this link to ask me a DIRECT QUERY: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
My BLOG: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.in
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