For other senses of this word, see dementia (disambiguation).

Dementia (from Latin demens) is progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging. Particularly affected areas may be memory, attention, language and problem solving, although particularly in the later stages of the condition, affected persons may be disoriented in time (not knowing what day, week, month or year it is), place (not knowing where they are) and person (not knowing who they are). Symptoms of dementia can be classified as either reversible or irreversible depending upon the etiology of the disease, although dementia, by definition, is irreversible and will eventually result in death. Probably less than 10% of all dementias are reversible. Dementia is a non-specific term that encompasses many disease processes, just as fever is attributable to many etiologies. The following codes are used with International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... The following is a list of codes for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... Dementia may refer to: Dementia, the cognitive disorder. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Look up Cognition on Wiktionary, the free dictionary The term cognition is used in several different loosely related ways. ... Comparative brain sizes In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the higher, supervisory center of the nervous system. ... Memory is a function of the brain: the ability to retain information. ... Look up Attention in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one thing while ignoring other things. ... Problem solving forms part of thinking. ... Orientation is a function of the mind involving awareness of three dimensions: (1) time, (2) place and (3) person. ... Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. ... See Fever for the Kylie Minogue album; Fever is also a song by Otis Blackwell. ...

Early symptoms of dementia often consist in changes in personality, or in behavior. Often dementia can be first evident during an episode of delirium. There is a higher prevalence of eventually developing dementia in individuals who experience an acute episode of confusion while hospitalized.

Dementia can affect language, comprehension, motor skills, short-term memory, ability to identify commonly used items, reaction time, personality traits, and executive functioning. Even without signs of general intellectual decline, delusions are common in dementia (15-56% incidence rate in Alzheimer's type, and 27-60% incidence rate in multi-infarct dementia). Often these delusions take the form of monothematic delusions, like mirrored self-misidentification. A delusion is commonly defined as a fixed false belief and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. ... Alzheimers disease (AD) or senile dementia of Alzheimers type is a neurodegenerative disease which results in a loss of mental functions due to the deterioration of brain tissue. ... Monothematic delusions are delusions that only concern one particular topic. ...

Elderly people can also react with dementia-like symptoms to surgery, infections, sleep deprivation, irregular food intake, dehydration, loneliness, change in domicile or personal crises. This is called delirium, and many if not most dementia patients also have a delirium on top of the physiologial dementia, adding to the symptoms. The delirium can go away or greatly improve when treated with tender care, improved food and sleeping habits, but this does not affect the alterations in the brain. Affected persons may also show signs of psychosis or depression. It is important to be able to differentiate between delirium and dementia. Delirium is a medical term used to describe an acute decline in attention and cognition. ... This article is about the mental state. ... Clinical depression is a health condition of depression with mental and physical components reaching criteria generally accepted by clinicians. ...

Diagnosis

Proper differential diagnosis between the types of dementia (see below) will require, at the least, referral to a specialist, e.g. a geriatric internist, geriatric psychiatrist or neurologist. However, there are some brief (5-15 minutes) tests that have good reliability and can be used in the office or other setting to evaluate cognitive status. Examples of such tests include the abbreviated mental test score (AMTS) and the mini mental state examination (MMSE). Neurology is the branch of medicine that deals with the nervous system and disorders affecting it. ... The abbreviated mental test score (AMTS) was introduced by Hodkinson in 1972 to rapidly assess elderly patients for the possibility of dementia. ... The mini mental state examination (MMSE) or Folstein test is a brief 30-point questionnaire test that is used to assess cognition. ...

An AMTS score of less than six and an MMSE score under 24 suggests a need for further evaluation. Of course, this must be interpreted in the context of the person's educational and other background, and particular circumstances. Routine blood tests are usually performed to rule out treatable causes. These tests include vitamin B12, folic acid, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), C-reactive protein, full blood count, electrolytes, calcium, renal function and liver enzymes. Abnormalities may suggest vitamin deficiency, infection or other problems that commonly cause confusion or disorientation in the elderly. Chronic use of substances such as alcohol can also predispose the patient to cognitive changes suggestive of dementia. Cobalamin or vitamin B12 is a chemical compound that is also known as cyanocobalamine. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Thyroid-stimulating hormone (also known as TSH or thyrotropin) is a hormone synthesised and secreted by thyrotrope cells in the anterior pituitary gland which regulates the endocrine function of the thyroid gland. ... C-reactive protein (CRP) is a plasma protein, an acute phase protein produced by the liver. ... A full blood count (FBC) or complete blood count (CBC) is a test requested by a doctor or other medical professional that gives information about the cells in a patients blood. ... An electrolyte is a substance which dissociates free ions when dissolved (or molten), to produce an electrically conductive medium. ... Calcium plays a vital role in the anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of organisms and of the cell, particularly in signal transduction pathways. ... In medicine (nephrology) renal function is an indication of the state of the kidney and its role in physiology. ... Liver function tests (LFTs or LFs), are groups of clinical biochemistry laboratory blood assays designed to give a doctor or other health professional information about the state of a patients liver. ... Bottles of cachaça, a Brazilian alcoholic beverage. ...

A CT scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MR scan) is commonly performed. This may suggest normal pressure hydrocephalus, a potentially reversible cause of dementia, and can yield information relevant to other types of dementia, such as infarction (stroke) that would point at a vascular type of dementia. Sometimes neuropsychological testing is helpful as well. CT apparatus in a hospital Computed axial tomography (CAT), computer-assisted tomography, computed tomography, CT, or body section roentgenography is the process of using digital processing to generate a three-dimensional image of the internals of an object from a large series of two-dimensional X-ray images taken around... Magnetic Resonance Image showing a vertical cross section through a human head. ... Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a neurological disorder often misdiagnosed as Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, and senility. ... A stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted. ...

The final diagnosis of dementia is made on the basis of the clinical picture. For research purposes, the diagnosis depends on both a clinical diagnosis and a pathological diagnosis (ie, based on the examination of brain tissue, usually from autopsy). An autopsy, also known as a post-mortem examination or an obduction, is a medical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of a persons death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present. ...

Types

The most common types of dementia are as follows and vary according to the history and the presentation of the disease: (Where available the ICD-10 codes are provided. The first code refers to the dementia, and the second to the underlying condition.) The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) is a detailed description of known diseases and injuries. ...

• (F00/G30) Alzheimer's disease
• (F01) Vascular dementia (also known as multi-infarct dementia), including Binswanger's disease
• (F02.3/G20) Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB)
• (F02.0/G31.0) Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), including Pick's disease
  • Frontotemporal dementia (or frontal variant FTLD)
  • Semantic dementia (or temporal variant FTLD)
  • Progressive non-fluent aphasia

It can also be a consequence of: Binswangers disease is a rare form of multi-infarct dementia caused by damage to deep white brain matter. ... Dementia with Lewy bodies is the second most frequent cause of hospitalization for dementia, after Alzheimers disease. ... Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is a form of dementia. ... Picks disease is a dementing illness associated with deterioration of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. ... Fronto-temporal dementias selectively affect the frontal lobe of the brain. ... Semantic dementia (SD) is a progressive language disorder characterized by fluent, empty speech and loss of word meaning. ... Progressive nonfluent aphasia is a progressive nonfluent speech disorder assoicated with agrammatism, phonemic paraphasias, and/or anomia. ...

• (F02.1/A81.0) Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• (F02.2/G10) Huntington's disease
• (F02.3/G20) Parkinson's disease
• (F02.4/B22.0) HIV infection
• (F07.2) Head trauma

Less than 5% of a sample of dementia cases have a potentially treatable cause. These include: This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The human immunodeficiency virus, commonly called HIV, is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital components of the human immune system such as CD4+ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. ... Head injury is a trauma to the head, that may or may not include injury to the brain (see also brain injury). ...

• (F02.8/E01-E03) Hypothyroidism
• (F02.8/E51) Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency
• (F02.8/E53.8) Vitamin B12 deficiency
• (F03/F32-F33) Depressive pseudodementia (note: dementia and depression can coexist in many patients and can be difficult to differentiate.)
• (G91.2) Normal pressure hydrocephalus
• Tumour

People with Down's syndrome have an increased risk of developing dementia of the Alzheimer's type. This risk increases as the person ages. Hypothyroidism is the disease state caused by insufficient production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland. ... Thiamine mononitrate Thiamine or thiamin, also known as vitamin B1, is a colorless compound with chemical formula C12H17N4OS. It is soluble in water and insoluble in alcohol. ... Cobalamin or vitamin B12 is a chemical compound that is also known as cyanocobalamine. ... Depressive pseudodementia is when a person with a depression (or fake depression) is trying to pretend that she/he has a dementia. ... Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a neurological disorder often misdiagnosed as Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, and senility. ... Tumor (American English) or tumour (British English) originally means swelling, and is sometimes still used with that meaning. ...

Treatment

Except for the treatable types listed above, there is no cure to this illness, although scientists are progressing in making a type of medication that will slow down the process.

Snoezelen rooms that provide patients with a soothing and stimulating environment of light, color, music and scent have been used in the therapy of dementia patients.

External links

• Dementia tutorial for U.K. practitioners by the Alzheimer's Society