Symptoms may include forgetfulness, misplacing items, or even occasional episodes of getting lost or failing to recognize people or places. Though relatively minor in its impact on life, the disease is there, enough to convince the person, family and friends that something is wrong. Summing it up, the disease is in the background, but present, nonetheless. The middle stages of AD is best described as when the disease has now progressed to a point where the patient is clearly battling it. They are aware that they are having problems and doing everything that they can to survive.
Life is a constant battle involving frustration, mishaps, and episodes of upset.
The end or late stages of AD are those periods when, during the course of the disease, it becomes apparent that the disease has won and the patient can do nothing else but give in or succumb to the overwhelming damage that has occurred in their brain. Now the person is in the background and the disease is in the foreground. In 1982 Dr. Barry Reisberg published what was to become the best and most widely accepted description of the stages of Alzheimer s disease. Even today, nine years later, when experts refer to a person being in stage 5 or stage 6, they are referring to Dr. Reisberg s scale of seven stages. Stage 1 No cognitive decline.