POSTERIOR CORTICAL ATROPHY
This is a rare form of Dementia that begins by affecting your vision it is also called Bensons syndrome
It is caused by damage to the brain cells at the back of the brain .
The part that processes information from your eyes and makes sense of what you see.
Alzheimers disease is often the cause of brain cell damage in PCA but it can be caused by Dementia with Lewy bodies and in rare cases it can be caused by Corticobasal syndrome or Creutzfield-jacob disease.
Alzheimers disease normally affects your memory first PCA starts with your vision
normally this would develop between the ages of 50-65 how many people it affects around the world is not known.
Symptoms of PCA Things appear to have unusual ,a client of mine complains that her brown walking stick is green and her hands are always turning red ! Objects are not recognisable and sometimes float around in front of you. A puddle can look like a hole in the ground. When you turn and walk away from an object you can sometimes still see it but then again you might not see things in front of you and walk straight in to them. Trying to cross a road becomes problematic and not being able to recognise faces and object. Can you imagine how stressful this must be. Bright lights are often uncomfortable people with Dementia often sit in the dark with the curtains shut because they don't like the light. Life expectancy with PCA is 8-12 years from diagnosis similar to Alzheimer's disease. At the moment there are no specific treatments to stop or slow PCA but as with other types of dementia there are medicines to treat the symptoms they are called Cholinesterase inhibitors.
These medicines help the brain cells to communicate with each other. Im sure most of you who know someone with Dementia will recognise these names Donepezil Rivastigmine Galantamine Memantine These are the 4 Cholinesterase inhibitors You can read up on PCA on Alzheimer's research uk
Marina Barker
Symptoms of PCA Things appear to have unusual ,a client of mine complains that her brown walking stick is green and her hands are always turning red ! Objects are not recognisable and sometimes float around in front of you. A puddle can look like a hole in the ground. When you turn and walk away from an object you can sometimes still see it but then again you might not see things in front of you and walk straight in to them. Trying to cross a road becomes problematic and not being able to recognise faces and object. Can you imagine how stressful this must be. Bright lights are often uncomfortable people with Dementia often sit in the dark with the curtains shut because they don't like the light. Life expectancy with PCA is 8-12 years from diagnosis similar to Alzheimer's disease. At the moment there are no specific treatments to stop or slow PCA but as with other types of dementia there are medicines to treat the symptoms they are called Cholinesterase inhibitors.
These medicines help the brain cells to communicate with each other. Im sure most of you who know someone with Dementia will recognise these names Donepezil Rivastigmine Galantamine Memantine These are the 4 Cholinesterase inhibitors You can read up on PCA on Alzheimer's research uk
Marina Barker