Dementia
Dementia is an umbrella term for several symptoms related to a decline in thinking skills. Common symptoms include a gradual loss of memory, problems with reasoning or judgment, disorientation, difficulty in learning, loss of language skills, and decline in the ability to perform routine tasks.
People with dementia also experience changes in their personalities and behavioral problems, such as agitation, anxiety, delusions (believing in a reality that does not exist), and hallucinations (seeing things that do not exist).
When a diagnosis of dementia is made, it is advisable to ask your doctor what type of dementia is present. Remember that dementia is not a normal part of aging. If a diagnosis of cancer was made, but the doctor didn't reveal or seek to discover the type of cancer, he would be doing his patient a great disservice and would probably be met with a malpractice lawsuit. The same is true of dementia. If a physician diagnoses dementia, it is completely acceptable to ask the physician what the cause of dementia is, even if it requires further testing.
Disorders that cause dementia
Several disorders that are similar to Alzheimer's disease can cause dementia.
These include fronto-temporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and Huntington's disease. All of these disorders involve disease processes that destroy brain cells.
Vascular dementia is a disorder caused by the disruption of blood flow to the brain. This may be the result of a massive stroke or several tiny strokes.
Some treatable conditions -- such as depression, drug interactions, and thyroid problems -- can cause dementia. If treated early enough, this dementia may be effectively treated and even reversed.
