Related topics: brain , disease , alzheimer s disease
Dementia
hideDementia (meaning "deprived of mind") is a cognitive impairment. It may be static, the result of a unique global brain injury or progressive, resulting in long-term decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the body beyond what might be expected from normal aging. Although dementia is far more common in the geriatric population, it may occur in any stage of adulthood. This age cutoff is defining, as similar sets of symptoms due to organic brain syndrome or dysfunction, are given different names in populations younger than adult. Up to the end of the nineteenth century, dementia was a much broader clinical concept.
Dementia is a non-specific illness syndrome (set of signs and symptoms) in which affected areas of cognition may be memory, attention, language, and problem solving. It is normally required to be present for at least 6 months to be diagnosed; cognitive dysfunction which has been seen only over shorter times, particularly less than weeks, must be termed delirium. In all types of general cognitive dysfunction, higher mental functions are affected first in the process. Especially in the later stages of the condition, affected persons may be disoriented in time (not knowing what day of the week, day of the month, or even what year it is), in place (not knowing where they are), and in person (not knowing who they are or others around them). Dementia, though often treatable to some degree, is usually due to causes which are progressive and incurable.
Symptoms of dementia can be classified as either reversible or irreversible, depending upon the etiology of the disease. Less than 10 percent of cases of dementia are due to causes which may presently be reversed with treatment. Causes include many different specific disease processes, in the same way that symptoms of organ dysfunction such as shortness of breath, jaundice, or pain are attributable to many etiologies. Without careful assessment of history, the short-term syndrome of delirium (often lasting days to weeks) can easily be confused with dementia, because they have all symptoms in common, save duration, and the fact that delirium is often associated with over-activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Some mental illnesses, including depression and psychosis, may also produce symptoms which must be differentiated from both delirium and dementia.
For more information about Dementia, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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News tagged with dementia
Some blood pressure drugs may help protect against dementia, study shows
Medicine & Health / Medications
Jul 23, 2009 |
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A particular class of medication used to treat high blood pressure could protect older adults against memory decline and other impairments in cognitive function, according to a newly published study from Wake Forest University ...
Midlife coffee and tea drinking and the risk of late-life dementia
Jan 15, 2009 |
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Midlife coffee drinking can decrease the risk of dementia/Alzheimer's disease (AD) later in life. This conclusion is made in a Finnish Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) Study published ...
Fat around the middle increases the risk of dementia
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 23, 2009 |
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Women who store fat on their waist in middle age are more than twice as likely to develop dementia when they get older, reveals a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy.
New study says dementia is a terminal illness
Oct 14, 2009 |
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The clinical course of advanced dementia, including uncomfortable symptoms such as pain and high mortality, is similar to that experienced by patients of other terminal conditions, according to scientists at the Institute ...
Progress towards Alzheimer's vaccine: Israeli researcher
Sep 21, 2009 |
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An Israeli researcher working on a vaccine to combat Alzheimer's disease said on Monday he had made important progress following tests on gene-altered laboratory mice.
Key Brain Receptors Linked To Learning and Memory Decrease with Age
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Sep 11, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying cognitive decline that accompanies aging have been interested in nicotinic receptors, part of a key neural pathway that not only enhances learning and memory skills but ...
Scientists discover new Alzheimer's gene
Aug 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A UC Irvine study has found that a gene called TOMM40 appears twice as often in people with Alzheimer's disease than in those without it. Alzheimer's, for which there is no cure, is the leading ...
Regular moderate alcohol intake has cognitive benefits in older adults
Jul 13, 2009 |
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A glass of wine here, a nightcap there - new research out of Wake Forest University School of Medicine suggests that moderate alcohol intake offers long-term cognitive protection and reduces the risk of dementia ...
Results from trials of DHA in Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline
Jul 12, 2009 |
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Results from two large studies using DHA, an omega 3 fatty acid, were reported today at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.
Chemicals found in fruit and veg offer dementia hope
Jul 10, 2009 |
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A group of chemicals found in many fruits and vegetables, as well as tea, cocoa and red wine, could protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease, a dementia expert will tell scientists at a conference today (Friday).
Language skills in your twenties may predict risk of dementia decades later
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jul 08, 2009 |
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People who have superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later, despite having the hallmark signs of the disease, according to research published in the July 9, 2009, ...
Lower risk of dementia for married or cohabiting people
Jul 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- People who live alone have twice the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease in later life compared with married or cohabiting people, according to a research study led by Miia Kivipelto from ...
Cognitive tests a 'first step' to Alzheimer's diagnosis
Jun 29, 2009 |
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The sooner someone is diagnosed with dementia, the better.
Is vitamin D deficiency linked to Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia?
May 26, 2009 |
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There are several risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Based on an increasing number of studies linking these risk factors with Vitamin D deficiency, an article in the current issue ...
Early identification of dementia increasingly difficult
May 20, 2009 |
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If grandma seems to forget things, will she end up demented? These days, memory loss is one of the very few symptoms that may signal which 70-year-olds risk developing dementia. This is shown in a doctoral thesis at the Sahlgrenska ...
