Dementia disorders

Abstract

Dementia is the acquired, widespread, and often progressive impairment of cognitive functions that affects content rather than consciousness. Although its frequency increases with age, dementia is not always a condition that accompanies aging. Dementia is a condition that affects the cerebral cortex, its subcortical connections, or both. Minor neurological function changes may occur in memory and other cognitive areas with normal aging. Differentiating between normal aging and dementia is important for the beginning of the treatment and the social life of the patients and their families. Dementia is divided into primary neurodegenerative dementia and secondary forms of dementia (nonneurodegenerative) according to the underlying etiology and mechanism of dysfunction. Dementia is a chronic disease that mostly affects the elderly population and requires long-term care. It is important to make a good differential diagnosis regarding the patient's symptoms and not to miss the treatable causes of dementia. For now, as there are no disease-modifying treatments available for degenerative dementias, it is important to recognize and treat neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms and to improve the quality of life of both the patient and the caregiver. When evaluating a patient with a complaint of forgetfulness, a detailed mental examination, cognitive tests, imaging, and laboratory tests should be performed. To protect patients and their relatives, the diagnoses and decisions should be recorded with all examinations. This chapter presents a practical and informative approach to the evaluation of a patient with a dementia. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.