The impaired person may become ever more involved in delusions. Late in the disease there is also likely to be a flattening of expression. You may not be able to tell whether the person is feeling happy or sad, angry or frightened. You may wonder if the person is sensing anything at all. Even the very impaired person may still be able to experience pleasure and pain.
Patients become more and more quiet and withdrawn.
They show only the slightest response to others, or no response at all. During this stage of the disease, physical disability also may become extreme. Skilled nursing care may be required in the final stages before death. Alzheimer's disease is the fourth leading cause of death among Americans over the age of sixty-five. Still, people do not, as a rule, die directly from the disease.