2.4 Dementia

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of cognitive disorders. In cognitive disorders the individual loses their ability to think and might even lose their memory completely. Complete amnesia is very rare but the most common and prevalent type of cognitive disorder is dementia. The best-known type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. It is found mainly in older people but it can occur much earlier as a pre-senile dementia. Other well-known types of dementia are vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy Bodies.

Features of dementia include:

• gradual memory loss
• inability to think through problems in everyday life
• inertia (inactivity)
• losing the ability to communicate and interact appropriately.

The Alzheimer’s Society [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] has useful information about dementia, such as diagnosis and caring for a person with dementia.