Dementia vs. Alzheimers?!


Question: What's the difference between the two?
Which is worse? Why?
Any experience with someone who has either condition?


Answers: What's the difference between the two?
Which is worse? Why?
Any experience with someone who has either condition?

Dementia is a broad term for progressive, irreversible cognitive decline. Alzheimer's is a cause for dementia (the most common cause) and suggests a specific pathology and pattern of disease (i.e if you looked at a brain of an Alzheimer's patient, you would see a specific pattern of brain shrinkage and abnormalities in the brain cells under the microscope). There are other types of dementia distinct from Alzheimer's (such as frontal-temporal dementia and Lewy Body dementia) which have different pathologies and look different under the microscope and have different patterns of brain shrinkage. Patients also have subtle differences in their cognitive dysfunction as well, but often it requires a specialist in dementia to really tease that out.

Since it's often difficult to distinguish the different types of dementia clinically, especially for doctors that do not specialize in dementia, and it's not feasible nor beneficial to do expensive testing like PET scans or tests as invasive as a brain biopsy simply to make the diagnosis, more often than not, doctors interchange dementia and Alzheimer's as the same thing. From a practical standpoint, the treatments are virtually the same regardless of the type of dementia.

Sorry for the long-winded answer. In a nutshell, all Alzheimer's is dementia but not all dementia is Alzheimer's.

Dementia is like an umbrella and Alzheimers falls under it. Alzheimers is a form of dementia just it's a worsening disease. I work with all kinds of dementia patients and some suffer from differnt forms of dementia like picks disease etc...do some research.

This website was helpful for me to understand the difference, I hope it does the same for you.

Comparing the Two Diseases

When comparing dementia vs. Alzheimer's disease it is very important to discuss the differences between the two diseases. Although they have many similarities, there are a number of differences that must be noted.

Alzheimer's disease is defined as a form of dementia characterized by the gradual loss of several important mental functions. It is perhaps the most common cause of dementia in older Americans, and goes beyond just normal forgetfulness, such as losing your car keys or forgetting where you parked. Signs of Alzheimer's disease include memory loss that is much more severe and more serious, such as forgetting the names of your children or perhaps where you've lived for the last decade or two.

Another way to compare dementia vs. Alzheimer's disease is to realize that dementia is a medical term used to describe a number of conditions characterized by the gradual loss of intellectual functions. Certain symptoms, as defined by the American Medical Association, of dementia include memory impairment, increased language difficulties, decreased motor skills, failure to recognized or identify objects, and disturbance of the ability to plan or think abstractly.

Yet another way to determine the differences of dementia vs. Alzheimer's disease is when the onset of the disease was first noticed. Of course, this is a very difficult thing since the progression of both is very gradual, and often there is no one point where someone can say, "Aha!" and know that the disease has taken hold. Often the onset of Alzheimer's can occur as early as 45 years of age. General dementia, however, usually is noted later in life, perhaps in the 70 to 80 year range.

When looking at dementia vs. Alzheimer's disease, one type of dementia is often confused with Alzheimer's disease



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