NINDS Dementia Information Page

What is Dementia?

Dementia is not a specific disease. It is a descriptive term for a collection of symptoms that can be caused by a number of disorders that affect the brain. People with dementia have significantly impaired intellectual functioning that interferes with normal activities and relationships. They also lose their ability to solve problems and maintain emotional control, and they may experience personality changes and behavioral problems, such as agitation, delusions, and hallucinations. While memory loss is a common symptom of dementia, memory loss by itself does not mean that a person has dementia. Doctors diagnose dementia only if two or more brain functions - such as memory and language skills -- are significantly impaired without loss of consciousness.  Some of the diseases that can cause symptoms of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia, Huntington’s disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.  Doctors have identified other conditions that can cause dementia or dementia-like symptoms including reactions to medications, metabolic problems and endocrine abnormalities, nutritional deficiencies, infections, poisoning, brain tumors, anoxia or hypoxia (conditions in which the brain’s oxygen supply is either reduced or cut off entirely), and heart and lung problems.  Although it is common in very elderly individuals, dementia is not a normal part of the aging process.

Is there any treatment?

What is the prognosis?

What research is being done?

• The Dementias: Hope Through Research
  Information booklet about Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and other types of dementia compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• NINDS Alzheimer's Disease Information Page
  Alzheimer's Disease (AD) information sheet compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• NINDS Dementia With Lewy Bodies Information Page
  Dementia With Lewy Bodies information sheet compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• NINDS Multi-Infarct Dementia Information Page
  Multi-infarct dementia information sheet compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• NINDS Binswanger's Disease Information Page
  Binswanger's Disease information sheet compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• NINDS Frontotemporal Dementia Information Page
  Pick's Disease information sheet compiled by NINDS, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
• NINDS Neurological Complications of AIDS Information Page
  AIDS-related neurological problems information sheet compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• Molecular Fingerprint Predicts HIV-Associated Dementia
  June 2003 press release on blood proteins in HIV-associated dementia.
• Glial Inflammation in HIV-1 Dementia and Other Chronic Neurodegenerative Diseases
  This meeting focused on integrating neurological and immunological perspectives on glial inflammatory responses in chronic degenerative diseases, including HIV-1 associated dementia (HAD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Huntington's disease (HD).
• Planning Workshop on Clinico-pathological Correlations in the Lewy Body Dementias Minutes
  Correlations in the Lewy Body Dementias Minutes