Date of Award

Spring 4-27-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Department

Biology

College

College of Science

First Advisor

Michael M. Pierce

Abstract/Description

Alzheimer’s Disease is a neurodegenerative illness and disease, the most common type of dementia, and the sixth leading cause of death (Sá et al., 2012). The disease was discovered in 1906 and named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a psychiatrist and neuropathologist. Over time, a variety of hypotheses have developed regarding the cause behind this multifactorial disease, and these will be disclosed in a later section. Nonetheless, the disease was first observed in changes of the brain tissue of a woman who was said to have die from an unusual mental illness with many abnormal bumps. These bumps are now recognized as tangled bundles of fibers, called neurofibrillary tangles. Additionally, the woman had a massive loss of neurons around the cerebral cortex, a major location site for memories and learning skills (Hippius & Neundörfer,2003). As symptoms were not understood at this time, she was said to have been at a loss for memory and performing unusual behaviors. My experience in memory care has led me to see the symptoms often vary greatly. These can include trouble finding the right words, impaired judgement, visual or spatial awareness, a decline in thinking abilities, asking the same questions over again, misplacing items, getting lost easily, or even violent lashes that appear in later stages (Kumar et al., 2021). As I have learned in the memory care unit, Alzheimer’s can look differentfor every patient, so the way I approach each patient with care will vary.

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