This book describes Types of Dementia, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

Dementia is not a specific disorder but is rather a broad term for the impaired ability to think, remember or make decisions that affects every day activities.

Alzheimer's disease is the most frequent cause of dementia, responsible for 60-80% of dementia cases.

Alzheimer’s is a specific disorder.

Dementia is not.

Dementia is a term used for deterioration in mental ability severe enough to disrupt daily life.

Dementia depicts a group of symptoms linked with deterioration in memory, reasoning or other thinking skills.

Many different types of dementia are present and many disorders cause it.

Irreversible Dementias are:

Alzheimer's disease

Vascular dementia

Lewy body dementia

Frontotemporal dementia

Mixed dementia

Huntington's disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Parkinson's disease

Alzheimer's disease

This is the most frequent cause of dementia, responsible for 60 to 80 percent of cases.

It is caused by specific alterations in the brain.

The specific symptom is trouble memorizing recent events, such as a conversation that happened minutes or hours ago while problem remembering distant memories happens later in the disorder.

Vascular dementia

About 10 % of dementia cases are linked to strokes or other disorders with blood flow to the brain.

Blood vessel disorders can produce strokes or affect the brain in other ways, such as by injuring the fibers in the white matter of the brain.

Lewy body dementia

Lewy bodies are abnormal balloon-like clumps of protein that have been observed in the brains of people with Lewy body dementia, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Frontotemporal dementia

FTD is a group of diseases featured by the deterioration of nerve cells and their connections in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.

Reversible Dementias are:

Delirium

Endocrine Diseases

Metabolic Diseases

Emotional Disease (depression)

Nutritional deficiencies, Normal-pressure hydrocephalus

Trauma and Tumor

Infections and immune disorders

Adverse side effects of medicines

People with dementia can have disorders with:

Memory

Attention

Communication

Reasoning, judgment, and problem solving

Visual perception beyond typical age-related changes in vision

Signs that may indicate dementia are:

Getting lost in a familiar neighborhood

Using unusual words to indicate familiar objects

Forgetting the name of a known family member or friend

Forgetting old memories

To diagnose the cause of the dementia, the doctor must identify the pattern of the loss of skills and function and determine what a person is still capable of doing.

More recently, biomarkers have become accessible to determine a more accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

Presently, no cure is available for any of the causes of irreversible dementia.

The treatment of dementia is dependent on the underlying cause.

Neurodegenerative dementias, like Alzheimer’s disease, have no cure, even though there are medicines that can help protect the brain or treat symptoms such as behavior changes:

Cholinesterase inhibitors

Memantine

A healthy lifestyle such as regular exercise, healthy eating, maintaining social contacts reduces chances of developing chronic diseases and reduce number of people with dementia.

Non-drug Therapies may help:

Occupational therapy

Modifying the environment

Simplifying tasks

TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction

Chapter 1 Dementia

Chapter 2 Alzheimer Disease

Chapter 3 Vascular Dementia

Chapter 4 Lewy Body Dementia

Chapter 5 Frontotemporal Dementia

Chapter 6 Parkinson Disease

Chapter 7 Huntingdon Disease

Chapter 8 Mad Cow Disease

Epilogue