Dementia

Auguste, the patient Alois Alzheimer used to describe Alzheimer's disease, in 1901. Alzheimer's disease is commonly associated with dementia.

Dementia (officially major neurocognitive disorder since 2013) is a group of diseases with symptoms, which affect the way people think and interact with each other. It can often be linked to a disease or damage done to the brain. Very often, short-time memory, mind, speech and motor skills are affected. Certain forms of dementia cause a change in the personality of the sufferer. A person suffering from dementia will lose certain skills and knowledge they already had. This is the main difference to other conditions affecting the mind. People who suffer from learning problems, or lower intelligence will never acquire certain skills, people suffering from dementia will lose skills they have acquired.

Dementia is more common in older people, but younger people can be affected as well. Certain forms of dementia can be treated, to some extent. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, which accounts for between 50 and 60 percent of all cases. Other types include vascular dementia and lewy body dementia. In 2019, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia ranked as the 7th leading cause of death. Women are disproportionately affected.^[1]

Famous people who suffered from dementia include Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean leader, and also Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist. Ronald Reagan, a U.S. President, had dementia.

Diagnosis/symptoms

People who see the following signs and symptoms worsen may suffer from dementia:^[2]

Decision-making ability
Judgment
Orientation in time and space
Problem solving
Verbal communication

Behavioral changes may include:

Eating
Dressing (may need assistance)
Interests
Routine activities (may become unable to perform household tasks)
Personality (inappropriate responses, lack of emotional control)

Causes

Some types dementia are reversible. This means the damage can be undone. Other types are irreversible. This means that they cannot be undone. Irreversible dementia is usually caused by an incurable disease, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Reversible causes of dementia also include diffuse axonal injury after injuries to the head or the brain, known medically as Traumatic brain injury.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease causes a dementia that gets worse quickly, over weeks or months, and is caused by prions.^[3] ,other forms like encephalopathy or delirium may develop relatively slowly, over a number of years.

The two leading causes of dementia are Alzheimer's disease and Multi-infarct disease.^[4] Glioma related tumors are another kmown cause. Alcohol dementia, is sometimes associated with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, and is caused by long-term or uncontrolled, heavy alcohol abuse.

Possible metabolic causes are such as liver failure or kidney failure; and chronic subdural hematoma. Possible other causes may include brain infection by illnesses like meningitis leading in cases to viral encephalitis drug toxicity (e.g. anticonvulsant drugs). A recent report by Science Daily says that researchers at the University of Bergen, in Norway have discovered a connection between Oral health and Alzheimers disease.^[5]

History of dementia

Main page: History of dementia

Lewy body dementia

Lewy body dementia (LBD) is an umbrella term for two similar and common [types or] subtypes of dementia:^[6] dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD).^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] Both are characterized by changes in thinking, movement, behavior, and mood.^[6] The two (illnesses or) conditions have (some things that are similar, or) similar features; They are believed to be some of the illnesses that belong on a spectrum of Lewy body disease.^[7] that includes Parkinson's disease.^[10] As of 2014, media said that they [are given wrong diagnosis often, or] more often misdiagnosed than any other common dementia.^[11]

Dementia Media

Brain atrophy in severe Alzheimer's
Skeletal formula of donepezil. Created using ACD/ChemSketch 10.0 and Inkscape.
Deaths per million persons in 2012 due to dementia

0–4 5–8 9–10 11–13 14–17
18–24 25–45 46–114 115–375 376–1266
Disability-adjusted life year for Alzheimer and other dementias per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004

300
A 19th-century drawing of a woman diagnosed with dementia
Woman with dementia being cared for at home in Ethiopia