- Dementia is a syndrome characterized by loss of intellectual abilities to such an extent that social and occupational functioning is interfered with; involves memory, judgment, abstract thought, and changes in personality. Often, the disorders are progressive and follow an irreversible course in which the damage remains permanent.
Diagnostic Criteria: Dementia
- Loss of intellectual abilities that interfere with social and occupational functioning
- Memory impairment
- Impairment in abstract thinking, judgment, and language
- Personality changed demonstrated by exaggeration of previous personality traits
- Additional characteristics: anxiety or depression may be apparent; behaviour may demonstrate excessive orderliness, social or withdrawal, or the tendency to relate an event in excessive detail, age at onset: found predominantly in the elderly
Etiologic Factors: Dementia
- Neurological diseases – huntington’s chorea, parkinson’s disease
- Cardiovascular disorders causing anoxia and brain damage: Cerebral arteriosclerosis, cerebro vascular disease, stroke
- Brain trauma – chronic subdural hematoma
- Toxic metabolic disturbance: pernicious anemia, hypothyroidism, bromide intoxication
- Loss of brain tissue and function in pre-senile conditions: Alzheimer’s disease
- Alteration of intracranial pressure
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