File:An_old_man_diagnosed_as_suffering_from_senile_dementia._Colo_Wellcome_L0026689.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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dementia

Also known as senility, rare dementia

AI overview

Dementia is a condition involving a general decline in cognitive abilities—including memory, thinking, behavior, and motor control—that makes it harder for people to perform everyday activities. It matters because it's an incurable, progressive condition that can cause emotional problems, language difficulties, and decreased motivation, typically developing across several stages.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Medical condition.risks: Several across the life course (e.g. less education, hearing loss, vision loss, physical inactivity, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, social isolation, air pollution, traumatic brain injury, depression)
Medical condition.diagnosis: Clinical assessment, cognitive testing (mini–mental state examination), and imaging
Medical condition.differential: Delirium, depression, hypothyroidism
Medical condition.prevention: Addressing risk factors throughout the life course, e.g. preventing, reducing or treating hearing and vision loss, depression, head injury and vascular risk factors (e.g. cholesterol, diabetes), decreasing smoking, and maintaining physical activity and cognitive stimulation
Medical condition.treatment: Varies but supportive care is given
Medical condition.medication: Varies depending on the type and stage, most medications have a small benefit
Medical condition.prognosis: Varies, dementia is a life limiting condition and life expectancy is usually shortened
Medical condition.frequency: 57 million (2021)
Medical condition.deaths: 1.62 million dementia-related deaths (2019) estimated to increase to 4.91 million by 2050
Medical condition.name: Dementia
Medical condition.image: File:An old man diagnosed as suffering from senile dementia. Colo Wellcome L0026689.jpg
Medical condition.caption: 1896 lithograph of a man with dementia
Medical condition.field: Neurology, psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry
Medical condition.symptoms: Decreased ability to think and remember, emotional problems, problems with language, decreased motivation, general decline in cognitive abilities
Medical condition.complications: Malnutrition, pneumonia, inability to perform self-care tasks, personal safety challenges, fractures from falls.
Medical condition.onset: Varies, usually gradual
Medical condition.duration: Varies, usually long term
Medical condition.causes: Neurodegeneration, vascular disease, stroke, traumatic brain injuries

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

325,630 papers

Neuropathology of Dementia Disorders.ReviewContinuum (Minneapolis, Minn.) · 2022Schneider JADOI: 10.1212/CON.0000000000001137
Young-onset dementia diagnosis, management and care: a narrative review.ReviewThe Medical journal of Australia · 2023Loi SM, Cations M, Velakoulis DDOI: 10.5694/mja2.51849
The neuropathology and cerebrovascular mechanisms of dementia.ReviewJournal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2016Raz L, Knoefel J, Bhaskar KDOI: 10.1038/jcbfm.2015.164
Social participation and risk of developing dementia.ReviewNature aging · 2023Sommerlad A, Kivimäki M, Larson EB et al.DOI: 10.1038/s43587-023-00387-0
Functional cognitive disorder: dementia's blind spot.ReviewBrain : a journal of neurology · 2020Ball HA, McWhirter L, Ballard C et al.DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa224
A Comprehensive Update on Treatment of Dementia.ReviewSeminars in neurology · 2019Tisher A, Salardini ADOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1683408
Dementia: new vistas and opportunities.ReviewNeurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2019Hachinski VDOI: 10.1007/s10072-019-3714-1
Dementia spectrum disorders: lessons learnt from decades with PET research.ReviewJournal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2019Wilson H, Pagano G, Politis MDOI: 10.1007/s00702-019-01975-4

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Image: An old man diagnosed as suffering from senile dementia. Colo Wellcome L0026689.jpg

Show 7 more facts

Commons category: Dementia
prevalence: 0.026
ICPC 2 ID: P70
exact match: www.orpha.net/ORDO/Orphanet_89043
ICD-9-CM: 294.1
NCI Thesaurus ID: C4786
P8168: La Paloma

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~82 min read

Article

56 sections

Contents

Signs and symptoms
Stages
Prodromal
Early
Middle
Late
Types
Alzheimer's disease
Vascular dementia
Lewy body dementias
Frontotemporal dementias
Mixed dementia
Autoimmune dementia
Childhood dementias
Early onset dementia
Later onset dementia
Secondary dementias
Huntington's disease
HIV
Prion diseases
Alcohol-related dementia
Conditions with dementia-like symptoms
Diagnosis
Imaging
Prevention
Risk factors{{anchor|Causes}}
Diet
Dental health
Management
Psychological and psychosocial therapies
Cognitive training and rehabilitation
Medications
Palliative care
Person-centered care
Sleep disturbances
Pain
Eating difficulties
Exercise
Assistive technology and digital health
Suicide risk following diagnosis
Epidemiology
Inequities and inequalities
Socioeconomic status and deprivation
Race and ethnicity
Gender
History
Terminology
Society and culture
National policies on dementia
Financial costs
Awareness
Philanthropy
Research directions
References
Further reading
External links

Dementia is a syndrome, often associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, and characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform everyday activities. This typically involves problems with memory, thinking, behavior, and motor control. Aside from memory impairment and a disruption in thought patterns, the most common symptoms of dementia include emotional problems, difficulties with language, and decreased motivation. The symptoms may be described as occurring in a continuum over several stages. Dementia is an incurable, progressive neurocognitive disorder, with varying degrees of severity (mild to major) and many forms or subtypes. The condition has a significant effect on the individual, their caregivers, and their social relationships in general. Dementia is not the same as age-related decline in cognition and memory, with no change in intelligence.

The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's. Dementia can be caused by brain injuries and stroke. It has also been described as a spectrum of disorders with subtypes of dementia based on which known disorder caused its development, such as Parkinson's disease for Parkinson's disease dementia, Huntington's disease for Huntington's disease dementia, vascular disease for vascular dementia, HIV infection causing HIV dementia, frontotemporal lobar degeneration for frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body disease for dementia with Lewy bodies, and prion diseases. Subtypes of neurodegenerative dementias may also be based on the underlying pathology of misfolded proteins, such as synucleinopathies and tauopathies. The coexistence of more than one type of dementia is known as mixed dementia.