Dementia Overview

1. Dementia Slideshow Pictures
2. Alzheimer's Disease Slideshow Pictures
3. Brain Foods Slideshow Pictures

Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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• Dementia Overview
• Dementia: Irreversible Causes
• Dementia: Treatable Causes
• Dementia Symptoms
• When to Seek Medical Care
• Dementia Diagnosis
• Dementia Treatment
• Dementia Self-Care at Home
• Dementia Medical Treatment
• Dementia Medications, Surgery, and Other Therapy
• Dementia Follow-up, Prevention, and Prognosis
• Support Groups and Counseling
• Synonyms and Keywords
• Authors and Editors
• Read more on Dementia Overview from Healthwise
• Viewer Comments: Dementia Overview - Symptoms

Dementia is a decline or loss of reasoning, memory, and other mental abilities (the cognitive functions such as judgment, thinking, behavior, and language). This decline eventually impairs the ability to carry out everyday activities such as driving; household chores; and even personal care such as bathing, dressing, and feeding (often called activities of daily living, or ADLs).

• Dementia is most common in elderly people; it used to be called senility and was considered a normal part of aging.
• We now know that dementia is not a normal part of aging but is caused by a number of underlying medical conditions that can occur in both elderly and younger persons.
• In some cases, dementia can be reversed with proper medical treatment. In others, it is permanent and usually gets worse over time.

About 4 to 5 million people in the United States have some degree of dementia, and that number will increase over the next few decades with the aging of the population; the following percentages are estimates and all forms of dementia are considered in these estimates:

• Dementia affects about 1% of people aged 60 to 64 years and as many as 30% to 50% of people older than 85 years.
• It is the leading reason for placing elderly people in institutions such as nursing homes.

Dementia is a very serious condition that results in significant financial and human costs.

• Many people with dementia eventually become totally dependent on others for their care.
• Although people with dementia typically remain fully conscious, the loss of short- and long-term memory in part or in full, are universal.
• People with dementia also experience declines in any or all areas of intellectual functioning, for example, use of language and numbers; awareness of what is going on around him or her; judgment; and the ability to reason, solve problems, and think abstractly.
• These losses not only impair a person's ability to function independently, but also have a negative impact on quality of life and relationships.

Many older people fear that they are developing dementia because they cannot find their glasses or remember someone's name.

• These very common problems are most often due to a much less serious condition involving slowing of mental processes with age.
• Medical professionals call this "benign senescent forgetfulness," or "age-related memory loss."
• Although this condition is a nuisance, it does not impair a person's ability to learn new information, solve problems, or carry out everyday activities, as dementia does.

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