Dementia: hard not to forget

Dementia refers to a group of symptoms that are caused by changes in brain function. Signs of dementia include changes in memory, personality, and behavior. Dementia also makes it hard for a person to carry out normal daily activities. A person with dementia may ask the same questions repeatedly and get lost in familiar places. He or she may be unable to follow directions; be disoriented about time, people, and places; and neglect personal safety, hygiene, and nutrition. Older people with dementia were once called senile, and it was thought that becoming senile was just part of getting old. But dementia is not a normal part of aging. It is important to find out the cause of a person's dementia. Some causes of dementia can be treated and reversed. Others are due to irreversible changes in the brain and cannot be cured.

Treatable conditions that can cause dementia include a high fever, dehydration, vitamin deficiency and poor nutrition, bad reactions to medicines, problems with the thyroid gland, or a minor head injury. Medical conditions like these can be serious and should be treated by a doctor as soon as possible.

Conditions or diseases that cause irreversible dementia, especially in older people, include Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies, and multi-infarct dementia (MID), also called vascular dementia. The elderly, those with family histories of dementia, and those with stroke risk factors are at higher risk for dementia. More women than men have dementia because women in general live longer than men. Even if the doctor diagnoses an irreversible form of dementia, much can be done to treat the individual and help the family cope.