Types of Dementia
78This hub will inform you about the different types of dementia that are known. You can select any hubs down here to get more information about a certain type of dementia. If you are not familiar to any one of them than I recommend you to read them all to get a clue about what it is. Young people may bot be interested in this disease, but in about 20 years from now, Dementia will be a big problem for our society. people are start getting older and older people have more risk on Dementia. When you are 75 years old you have a 5% chance to become demented. This figure will double every 5 years. So 20% of all people who are 85 have some type of Dementia disease.
Dementia hits a big part of our population
What is dementia?
Most people don't exactly know what dementia is. And when they do, they always think of Alzheimer disease. But, in a mater fact there are many different types of dementia each with it's own symptoms. What many people forget is that Dementia diseases are syndromes and not solely diseases. A syndrome is a collection of symptoms, that is why no 2 people with dementia are the same. They could have some similarities but they also have a lot of differences.
People think that persons with Dementia are starting to get crazy. Although their behaviour can be strange in our eyes, they are certainly not crazy. They are loosing the ability to collect memories that have always been their and the mind adapts to that new situation. The mind is in a way self protecting it. The brain also looses abilities to inhibit certain behaviour like which can give embarrassing moments. Demented people often like to talk about sex or will say things like inappropriate words that they have never said before. This is a strange thing to cope with if your demented mother is suddenly calling nasty words but it is a symptom of this disease.
So what types of dementia are there and why are they so different? Let me start with the most known of all diseases, Alzheimer Disease
Vascular Dementia
Vascular Dementia, or multi infarct dementia is the second most common form of dementia. Vascular dementia means that people got impaired after few or many infarcts of the bloodvessels in the brain. The cause of this form of dementia is totally different than those of Alzheimer disease or Lewy body or Frontotemporal dementia. In fact, the only reason why this is called dementia is because the symptoms look a like. When people have a stroke, they have a chance to recover completely. But in many occasions there is some damage that won't recover in the brains. At first this can give some minor impairment what does not qualify for dementia syndrome. Because the underlaying cause of the stroke mostly stays intact (smoking, high blood pressure, bad vessels etc) there is a very large chance that the person will get another stroke (50%). If people got multiple strokes there is a chance that the impairment is multiplied and will qualify for the symptomes of vascular dementia.
Why is it so important to differtiate what type of dementia a person has? First of all i would say medication and treatment. You will give different medication to someone who has diagnosed Alzheimder disease. He will probably get Exelon or some other medicin that should slowdown the process. In someone with vascular dementia this would not work. it is not the aging braing that is forgetting, it is the brain that doesn't get blood that has got damaged.
Another reason why you would like to know is the difference in perspective. A person with AD will always deteriorate where a person with vascular dementia could be stable as long as his bloodvessels will hold. Sadly enough this is mostly not the case.
Read my hub about Vascular Dementia to read more about the main symptoms
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There are indeed many types of dementia.
I, myself, have neurological lyme disease --
a spirochetal/bacterial infectious disease
that is a more complex than but a cousin to syphilis--
which has affected my brain chemistry, moods, short-term memory, IQ.... Basically have the equivalent of stage 3-4 alzheimers because of this bacteria.
Disseminated lyme disease doesn't effect everyone exactly the same and because testing is only about 46% accurate, it's difficult to diagnose without seeing a lyme-literate doctor for clinical evaluation.
My dad has Hydrocephalus("water on the brain")and had symptoms of dementia from it until it was corrected with a shunt procedure.
Differential diagnosis for dementia in the elderly doesn't seem to be as vigorous which I think is a societal malady.
Very informative, thanks for sharing.
Well written an informative. Some good information.
Kebennett1 Level 4 Commenter 2 years ago
I find this very informative. My mother has mild dementia. She has had several major strokes and many, many TIA's. The doctors have never clarified this for me so I always assumed Alzheimers onset.