Cognitive deficits often associated with dementia include memory, language, visual spatial functions, and higher-order "executive" functioning (e.g., problem solving, planning, reasoning). Dementia can also affect your motor functions, such is that case with Parkinson’s disease. These cognitive impairments interfere with the person's ability to perform his or her usual daily activities.

The most common types of dementia are Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, but there are many more rare types including:   Parkinson's disease Progressive supranuclear palsy Huntington's disease Frontotemporal dementia Progressive nonfluent aphasia Semantic dementia Corticobasal degeneration Lewy body dementia

There are also a number of disorders that look like dementia. Most of these are treatable and sometimes even preventable. They include alcoholism, drug use, vitamin B12 deficiency, hepatic encephalopathy (brain impairment caused by liver disease), pancreatic disorders, delirium caused by an acute medical illness, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and anaemia to name but a few. Medications can also rarely cause cognitive problems, which can usually be reversed. And psychological disorders in the elderly can appear to be dementia, depression and late onset schizophrenia being common examples.

Dementia is diagnosed when all other medical and psychological reasons have been excluded, and there has been a period of progressive decline in cognition and/or behaviour, and this impacts upon the person’s ability to function.

Current treatments

Please follow this link to find out about current treatments for the symptoms of dementia.

www.alzheimers.org.au

And watch this space for articles about dementia and treatment.