The Difference between Alzheimer's and Dementia Explained
78Dementia is a terrible disease for both sufferers and caregivers to cope with. Sadly, as the population ages it will become more and more common. Below are the bald facts about the various kinds of dementia, including Alzheimer's and the important differences between them.
Put most simply and brutally, dementia is a result of the death of brain cells. It is a common problem in old age but it certainly isn’t inevitable.
Something must happen to the brain to cause the problem. In some cases serious blows to the head may be a trigger. In other cases, blood clots might block vessels in the brain and lead to the death of brain cells.
Fortunately, the vast majority of elderly people will never suffer from dementia.
True dementia (including Alzheimer’s) is not curable, though many symptoms can be eased with medication.
Sometimes serious depression can cause symptoms that are very similar to dementia. This is sometimes called pseudo- or false dementia and can be treated successfully.
The correct diagnosis is very important if a loved one starts showing dementia symptoms.
The Different kinds of Dementia
Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's is just one of the many causes of dementia. It is the commonest and it is also one of the forms of dementia that hits earliest. For these reasons alone, it is often the form of dementia that people are most scared of.
Sometimes, the onset of Alzheimer's can be traced to middle age- as early as the mid forties. Serious symptoms usually surface when the person is in their sixties.There is a very rare form of Early Onset Alzheimer's that can strike in a person's thirties.
Alzheimer's causes a gradual decline in thinking and reasoning abilities. This leads to problems with memory, movement, language, behavior, judgment and all kinds of thinking. Their are usually big changes in the person's personality and sudden mood swings (from tearful, to angry, to calm in a few minutes).
The video below explains the causes of Alzheimer's. The disease causes big changes in the brain and Alzheimer's is often diagnosed with a brain scan.
Once the disease has been diagnosed the person has an average life expectancy of about seven years. Less than 3 percent live more than fourteen years after diagnosis.
Vascular Dementia
‘Vascular’ simply means to do with the blood supply. When a stroke or other problem cuts blood supply to any part of the brain, that part will die. This results in loss of brain function.
Vascular dementia may or may not get worse with time. It all depends on whether the person has more strokes or not. In some cases, symptoms may even get better as the person recovers from the strokes.
If the disease does get worse, it often happens in a stepwise manner, with abrupt changes in the persons abilities. Unlike people with Alzheimer's, people with vascular dementia often keep their normal personality until late into the illness.
The main symptoms of vascular dementia are similar to other kinds of dementia including confusion. memory loss and mood swings. Wandering is one of the symptoms often associated with vascular dementia.
This kind of dementia is rarely a problem for anyone under the age of seventy.
Lewy Body Dementia
This is another common form of dementia. Parts of the brain – the ‘Lewy Bodies’ are affected.
The symptoms of Lewy Body Dementia overlap with Alzheimer's. This includes memory impairment, poor judgment, and confusion.
However, Lewy Body Dementia also includes visual hallucinations and Parkinson's Disease-like symptoms, such as a shuffling gait and flexed posture, Sufferers of this kind of dementia have good days and bad days, as the symptoms come and go.
People with Lewy Body Dementia live an average of 7 years after symptoms begin. There is no treatment for this disease but drugs normally used to control the symptoms of Parkinson's disease can help with physical symptoms. Other drugs can help control the hallucinations.
Fronto-temporal Dementia (FTD)
This is one of the rarer forms of dementia accounting for 2 to 10 per cent of cases. The frontal lobes of the brain are affected.
It is a form of dementia that like Alzheimers can strike early in life. Symptoms of FTD usually appear between the ages of 40 and 65.
People with FTD often have problems in their relationships and trouble following normal patterns of behavior. They may steal things or be rude. They often neglect their normal responsibilities.
Other common symptoms include problems with speech and language, repetitive behavior, a big appetite, and physical things such as stiffness and balance problems. Memory loss also may occur, although usually this happens late in the disease.
People with FTD live with the disease for an average of 5 to 10 years after diagnosis.
Other rarer causes of dementia:
- Huntingdon's Disease, a rare inherited disease that runs in families.
- Dementia pugilistica. This form of dementia is the result of repeated head injuries and often affects boxers.
- Corticobasal degeneration (CBD)
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
- HIV can cause dementia.
General Dementia and Alzheimer links
U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH fact sheet on dementia: http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/Publications/adfact.htm
Early Onset Alzheimer's disease: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early-onset_Alzheimer's_disease
Vascular Dementia explained by the Mayo Clinic:http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vascular-dementia/DS00934
UK Alzheimer's Society: http://alzheimers.org.uk/
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To be honest, I forget the forum post. I think one of the reasons I wrote this page was because I am worried about my own suddenly bad memory. As soon as I hit fifty, my short term memory started to evaporate. I feel a little reassured after reading around. Aging happens. Memory declines even if you are not heading for dementia.
Another reason for the hub is that one of my cousins is looking after her father who has Alzheimer's. Luckily she is a born caregiver and has a pretty professional approach.
As for your mother, I'm sorry to hear that she has dementia.
It isn't inevitable for you though. Any kind of mental activity keeps the brain younger. Writing children's stories should keep you in perfect shape for a long time!
And who needs the left hemisphere... it'a only fit for maths and filling in tax forms!
I am having trouble with my 80 year old mother. She is so very hateful and argumentative with me, her daughter, and nobody else. What can I do to get her and her 15-year younger husband to realize that there are changes that need to be addressed, specifically with medication?
I honestly don't know. All I can say is that people who can put aside their own feelings when they take on a care giving responsibility usually do better. Those people who have the patience to wait for the right moment to say or do something also fare better.
The problem is that when such important and history laden relationships are involved how can you put aside your own feelings?
HaHa. The title made me think you were saying Alzheimer's wasn't a dementia. If my mom misses it, then I probably won't get Alzheimer's disease.
Storytellersrus Level 7 Commenter 2 years ago
Hey Will, I finally found your response to a comment I made in a Forum, "I will stop attacking everyone." I thought it was funny so I came to your site and found this.
I figure I will have dementia as my mom has it and my grandmother had it. I appreciate discovering the difference between Alzheimers and dementia. I hadn't researched it-- something that is unusual for me, but there it is, haha.
These definitions give me peace of mind. Vascular dementia is what I am looking at evidently. I think I have already killed the brain cells in my left hemisphere, lol! Thanks again.