It's not always Alzheimer's disease - Resources

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It’s not always Alzheimer’s disease

Not everyone who has dementia has Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of irreversible dementia, but there are actually more than 70 different kinds of dementia.

Many irreversible dementias share common traits, such as memory loss, but the initial presenting symptoms of the dementias may be different.

Vascular dementia

Previously referred to as multi-infarct dementia
Usually caused by a series of mini-strokes
Damage is related to inadequate blood supply
Symptoms may include impaired judgment and challenges completing multi-step tasks
Changes can come on suddenly, or come as a gradual loss of function or thinking

Lewy body dementia

Tends to share symptoms with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease
May look similar to Parkinson’s disease in terms of movement
Initial presenting symptoms may include frequent falls, sleep disturbances and visual hallucinations
Cognitive fluctuations may inhibit some people’s abilities

Frontotemporal dementia

Previously referred to as Pick’s disease
Symptoms related to the frontal lobe may include personality changes, loss of impulse control and inability to control behavior
Symptoms related to the temporal lobe may include difficulty with language, such as being unable to get words out or to understand what is said
Symptoms tend to develop between ages 40 and 65
Tends to progress faster than Alzheimer’s disease