Is It Alzheimers Or Another Dementia: Alzheimers
Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School
Is it Alzheimer's or another dementia?
For physicians and families intent on pinning down a diagnosis, one major factor that complicates the clinical picture is the existence of so many kinds of dementia. More than 50 conditions can mimic or cause dementia. Alzheimer's disease is by far the most common intractable condition. But other causes of irreversible dementia include blood vessel disease (vascular cognitive impairment, Binswanger's dementia), other degenerative disorders (frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease), slow-growing brain tumors, or infections of the central nervous system (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, AIDS dementia, neurosyphilis).
In some types of dementia, treatment will improve mental functioning, and in a small percentage, the dementia is completely reversible if treatment begins before permanent brain damage occurs. That's why it is important to report to a doctor any signs of dementia early in the process.
| Last updated: | January 23, 2007 |
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Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.
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