Memory loss is the most widely known sign of dementia, but other changes might be warning signs. Chief among them are financial problems.
Changes in the brain can bring about money problems, like falling into debt or forgetting to pay the bills. Indeed, experts say people with dementia can make poor financial decisions years before they experience memory loss.
Dr. Winston Chiong, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, has said this sign of dementia involves multiple areas of the brain. He told the New York Times: “One of the reasons why financial mismanagement can be a sensitive indicator is just because it’s so complicated.”
Early signs of dementia
Dementia’s cognitive symptoms are more commonly known. As per the NHS: “Different types of dementia can affect people differently, and everyone will experience symptoms in their own way.”
Even so, the health service has listed some common early symptoms that may appear some time before dementia is diagnosed:
- Memory loss
- Difficulty concentrating
- Finding it hard to carry out familiar daily tasks, such as getting confused over the correct change when shopping
- Struggling to follow a conversation or find the right word
- Being confused about time and place
- Mood changes
Financial problems and dementia
People with dementia or Alzheimer’s often have trouble managing money.
“Research shows that money problems may be one of the first noticeable signs of the disease,” states the National Institute of Aging in the US.
For example, early on in the disease, they may manage basic tasks like paying for shopping or their bills, but the Alzheimer’s Society notes they may have problems changing their gas supplier or making choices about investments.
“As the disease gets worse, the person may try to hide financial problems to protect their independence. Or the person may not realise that they are losing the ability to handle money matters.”
Some problems the agency says their loved ones might find include:
- Unopened and unpaid bills
- Lots of new purchases on a credit card bill
- Unexpected new merchandise in the home
- Money missing from the person’s bank account
An early sign of a rare form of dementia
People with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a rare form of dementia, often experience financial problems very early on in the disease, like impulsive shopping or falling victim to scams.
Dr Chiong said those with FTD are particularly susceptible to “different kinds of manipulation” or they may be “more likely to be wasteful with money or careless with money”. He explained: “People with frontotemporal dementia are less sensitive to potential negative consequences.”
As The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration explains it: “The person with FTD may fall prey to financial scams, compulsively gamble, ignore their bills, fail to pay taxes, spend beyond their means, get fired from their job, or, if self-employed, mismanage their own business.
“Because FTD is often a young-onset dementia, most commonly occurring between ages 45 and 64, families affected have or are taking on more debt (paying off a mortgage, taking out loans for college tuition) or are working and saving for retirement.”