What is Agnosia?
Some dementia patients typically become unable to recognize their home, their spouse, or themselves in the mirror. Though the beliefs that the patient is not home or the spouse is a stranger are similar to delusions, what these dementia patients are really experiencing is an agnosia. An agnosia is the loss of ability to recognize objects or people who should be very familiar, according to Robert B. Santulli, MD, editor of the Upper Valley Memory Center Handbook, published in 2007. How to Cope With The Dementia Symptom: “I Want to Go Home.” The patient will say, “I want to go home,” and may repeatedly pack her bags and persistently try to convince her caregiver to drive her home. She may even slip out of the house when nobody is looking in order to try to “go home”. Distraction and redirection are recommended. Trying to prove to dementia patients that they are home can cause too much distress. They are unable to be logical due to brain damage. Even if they believed that they were home,
