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What is Dementia and How does it Develop?
What is Dementia and How does it Develop?
The term dementia does not actually describe a specific illness, but rather the accumulation of certain symptoms. The individual manifestations can have very different causes and their accumulation is referred to as a syndrome. In total, the term dementia includes around 50 forms of disease, including lighter forms of memory loss and the most severe forms, e.g. Alzheimer's disease.
Although each form of dementia can have individual symptoms, they have one thing in common: Dementia manifests itself as both persistent and progressive memory impairment. This also applies to thinking and other brain functions. Other symptoms, e.g. in interpersonal behavior or in the form of depression, vary between the different manifestations of dementia.
Primary and secondary forms of dementia that treat as memory loss long term
Primary and secondary forms of dementia that treat as memory loss long term
A distinction is made between two forms of dementia and dementia: primary dementia and secondary dementia.
All forms of dementia that can be described as an independent disease are referred to as "primary dementia". As much research knows, their origin lies in the brain, where more and more nerve cells die off as the disease progresses. Even the most common dementia, Alzheimer's disease, falls under the concept of primary dementia. The best known (and most common) forms of primary dementia are:
Alzheimer's disease
Vascular dementia
Frontotemporal dementia
Lewy body dementia
Primary dementia must be differentiated from what is known as “secondary dementia”. This term covers all dementia-related illnesses that are triggered by previous illnesses or medication. Causes of secondary dementia can include:
depression
Alcohol addiction
Thyroid disease
Vitamin deficiency diseases
Cortical and subcortical dementia
Cortical and subcortical dementia
However, dementia can also be classified according to other systems. The cortical / subcortical distribution has proven to be a sensible classification: This classification depends on the distribution in which the neuronal changes responsible for dementia occur in the brain.
Cortical dementia is therefore due to changes in the cerebral cortex (so-called cortex cerebri). Forms of cortical dementia include Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia.
If, on the other hand, the change occurs below the cerebral cortex or deeper in the brain, it is called subcortical dementia (from Latin sub, below '). This form of dementia includes subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy (SAE), a form of vascular dementia.
Dementia cannot always be clearly attributed to cortical or subcortical dementia - mixed forms are not uncommon.
The dementia syndrome
The dementia syndrome
Dementia is not always referred to medically. Early or mild forms of the disease are summarized under the term "dementia syndrome", which is often equated with dementia in the language.
Medicine describes a general impairment or impairment of mental performance as dementia syndrome. These include symptoms such as memory disorders, language disorders and disorientation, and possibly personality changes.
So-called pseudo-dementia differs from dementia syndrome. This term covers brain disorders that occur temporarily and often manifest themselves through an inhibition of thoughts or drives. Pseudodementia is a typical symptom of major depression.
Dementia symptoms: how do you recognize dementia?
Dementia symptoms: how do you recognize dementia?
The main symptom of dementia in all of its forms is long-term memory loss. In this context, long-term means that the dead nerve cells cannot be restored by treatment - dementia is therefore an irreversible and therefore incurable disease.
How memory loss manifests itself depends on the type of dementia. While some forms manifest themselves solely in loss of brain power, others also involve a personality change.
To illustrate this, let's look at the four most common forms of dementia and their respective symptoms:
Related Memory Loss Topics:
Related Memory Loss Topics:
Memory Problems in 20s - Memory Loss in Young Age
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