What Is the Difference Between Alzhemeirs Disease and Dementia?
Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at
7:28 pm
ann h asked:
And what is the cause?
Filed under: Alzheimers
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Dementia is when a person’s mental functions are impaired and the impairment interferes with the person’s daily life. It is not really a disease in the traditional sense, it is a group of symptoms like mental confusion, changes in personality, and changes in behavior. It may be caused by a number of different things. Some causes are curable; others may not be.
Alzheimer’s disease is one common cause of dementia. It involves the nerves in the brain, which slowly atrophy and eventually die off over the course of years, causing increasing confusion, loss of mental acuity, and eventually loss of physical abilities as well. There is no specific cause that has been identified. It can only be diagnosed with 100% accuracy after the patient has died. However, doctors can rule out other causes of the patient’s symptoms and offer a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s with fairly high accuracy. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease.