Dementia
Dementia is a general term for confusion or cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment is when a person has trouble thinking, remembering, learning new things, concentrating, or making decisions that affect their everyday life.
Dementia includes at least two of the following symptoms:
- Memory loss
- Language problems such as word finding difficulties
- Impaired visual perception and recognition
- Difficulty with skilled motor tasks
- Impaired judgment and reasoning
- Loss of motivation, planning ability, and organizational skills
- Problems with calculations
- Behavioral problems, including suspiciousness, paranoia, and agitation
- Dementia is caused by or exacerbated by a number of different disorders:
- Alzheimer's disease
- Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders
- Lewy body dementia
- Frontotemporal dementia (including Pick's disease)
- Many additional lesser known neurodegenerative diseases
- Strokes (vascular dementia)
- Depression
- Medication side effects
- Vitamin deficiencies
- Hormonal imbalances
- Alcohol and other toxic conditions
- Kidney, liver, cardiac, or respiratory failure
- Subdural hematomas
- Tumors
- Multiple sclerosis
- Hydrocephalus
- Prion diseases (Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease)
- Infectious diseases
It is usually necessary for an individual with symptoms of dementia to undergo a detailed examination. The exam includes:
- Neurological exam
- Paper and pencil tests of memory and thinking abilities
- Brain scan (CT or MRI)
- Blood tests
Before a diagnosis can be made, this exam must be completed.
The three most common types of dementia are listed below. Click on one or all of them to learn more about a specific type of dementia.
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Frontotemporal Dementia
- Lewy Body Dementia