What is "dementia"?

What is "dementia"?

Gus Alva (Medical Director, ATP Clinical Research) gives expert video advice on: What causes dementia?; Who is most at risk for developing dementia?; How do I prevent myself from developing dementia? and more...

Dementia is a syndromal state. What that means is that there is usually a combination of several things. So with dementias, the common thread is a memory problem. Associated with that memory problem is typically going to be a neurological finding, whether it involves language or the ability to do things with one's hands or the ability to plan and organize. And typically, this is something that is brought about by a particular reason. As I mentioned, 65% of dementias that are not reversible are due to Alzheimer's Disease. The reversible causes of dementia could include things like depression, a drug interaction, an infection of the urinary tract or the lower respiratory tract. It could be because of say a hormonal imbalance, an electrolyte imbalance. Those would be typical things that would tie into a delirious state that would look like a dementing process. Now other nonreversible dementias outside of Alzheimer's Disease include things like vascular dementia or mixed dementias, Lewy body dementia or Parkinson's Disease with dementia. There are a whole slew of other dementing processes but the common thread here is a problem with short term memory.