Dementia: Causes, Risk Factors & Symptoms

Causes

Causes of dementia include:

• Alzheimer's disease —the most common cause of dementia
• Brain damage after multiple small strokes (so-called vascular dementia)
• Alcoholism
• AIDS
• Multiple sclerosis
• Huntington's disease
• Parkinson's disease
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• Lewy body dementia
• Pick's disease
• Normal pressure hydrocephalus
• Untreated syphilis
• Toxic levels of metals, such as aluminum (as can sometimes occur in dialysis patients)
• Vitamin B12 deficiency
• Thiamine deficiency
• Fronto-temporal dementia

Risk Factors

Risk factors for dementia include:

• Advancing age
• Family members with dementia
• Down syndrome
• Apolipoprotein E status (a genetic risk)
• Elevated cholesterol
• Multiple strokes
• High blood pressure
• Vitamin deficiency
• Chronic drug use
• Long-term use of hormone replacement therapy
• Repetitive head trauma (eg, may occur with contact sports)

Symptoms

They often begin mildly and progress over time. Symptoms vary according to the cause of the dementia, but often include:

• Increasing trouble remembering things, such as:
  • How to get to familiar locations
  • The names of friends, family members
  • Where common objects are usually kept
  • Simple math
  • How to perform usual tasks, such as cooking, dressing, bathing, etc.
  • How to drive
  • Bill paying
• Trouble concentrating on tasks
• Trouble completing sentences, due to lost/forgotten words (may progress to complete inability to speak)
• Inability to remember the date, time of day, season
• Getting lost in familiar surroundings
• Mood swings
• Withdrawal, loss of interest in usual activities
• Personality changes
• Slow, shuffling walk
• Poor coordination
• Slowness and then loss of purposeful movement