What Are The Major Types Of Dementia?

Dementia is a term used to describe when the loss of certain behavioral abilities, remembering, thinking, and reasoning causes interference in an individual's daily activities and life. Several cognitive functions are affected when an individual develops dementia, including language skills, problem-solving, ability to focus, memory, visual perception, nonverbal communication skills, and self-management. Dementia patients may experience changes in their personality and may experience difficulty in controlling their emotions. The severity of a patient's dementia can range from mild cognitive impairment and occasional forgetfulness to severe stages where they are entirely dependent on others in their basic activities of daily life. Dementia develops when neurons in the brain become non-functional, lose the ability to communicate with other cells in the brain, and die. Some neuron loss due to aging is normal and natural, but dementia defines an excessive and much greater neuron loss.

Of course, there are different types of dementia depending on factors such as the cause as well as the symptoms and overall progression of the condition. Learn about these types now.

Alzheimer's Disease

The most common form of dementia in the general population is referred to as Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease develops when clumps of certain proteins referred to as tangles and plaques build up in the junctions in between the nerve cells. Alzheimer's disease patients also experience a decrease in certain chemicals called neurotransmitters, which are responsible for the passing of signals between the cells. Symptoms that Alzheimer's disease is interfering with a patient's daily life include losing items around the house, forgetting names of family members and friends, unable to remember recent events and conversations, get lost on a familiar route or in a familiar place, forget significant dates, and do not remember to attend appointments. Alzheimer's disease patients may also struggle to follow a conversation, repeat themselves often, have reduced visuospatial skills, are unable to make decisions, cannot carry out a sequence of tasks, unable to solve problems, lose track of the day, experience mood changes, and lose interest in hobbies and activities that they once enjoyed. Every case is different, but most patients have a life expectancy of between eight and ten years following the onset of their first symptoms.

Read about another form of dementia now.