A condition in which a person loses the ability to think, remember, learn, make decisions, and solve problems. Symptoms may also include personality changes and emotional problems. There are many causes of dementia, including Alzheimer disease, brain cancer, and brain injury. Dementia usually gets worse over time.

A loss of brain function that worsens over time and affects memory, thinking, behavior, and language.

A loss of global cognitive ability of sufficient amount to interfere with normal social or occupational function. Dementia represents a loss of previously present cognitive abilities, generally in adults, and can affect memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior.

An acquired organic mental disorder with loss of intellectual abilities of sufficient severity to interfere with social or occupational functioning. The dysfunction is multifaceted and involves memory, behavior, personality, judgment, attention, spatial relations, language, abstract thought, and other executive functions. The intellectual decline is usually progressive, and initially spares the level of consciousness.

Loss of intellectual abilities interfering with an individual's social and occupational functions. Causes include Alzheimer's disease, brain injuries, brain tumors, and vascular disorders.

Mental disorder characterized by general impairment in intellectual functioning without clouding of consciousness; characterized by failing memory, difficulty with calculations, distractibility, alterations in mood and affect, impaired judgment and abstraction, reduced facility with language and disturbance of orientation. Although irreversible because of underlying progressive degenerative brain disease, dementia may be reversible if the cause can be treated.

Dementia is a loss of mental functions that is severe enough to affect your daily life and activities. These functions include: Memory; Language skills; Visual perception (your ability to make sense of what you see); Problem solving; Trouble with everyday tasks; The ability to focus and pay attention. It is normal to become a bit more forgetful as you age. But dementia is not a normal part of aging. It is a serious disorder which interferes with your daily life. The most common types of dementia are known as neurodegenerative disorders. These are diseases in which the cells of the brain stop working or die. They include: Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia among older people. People with Alzheimer's have plaques and tangles in their brain. These are abnormal buildups of different proteins. Beta-amyloid protein clumps up and forms plaques in between your brain cells. Tau protein builds up and forms tangles inside the nerve cells of your brain. There is also a loss of connection between nerve cells in the brain.; Lewy body dementia, which causes movement symptoms along with dementia. Lewy bodies are abnormal deposits of a protein in the brain.; Frontotemporal disorders, which cause changes to certain parts of the brain: Changes in the frontal lobe lead to behavioral symptoms; Changes in the temporal lobe lead to language and emotional disorders.; Vascular dementia, which involves changes to the brain's blood supply. It is often caused by a stroke or atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) in the brain.; Mixed dementia, which is a combination of two or more types of dementia. For example, some people have both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Other conditions can cause dementia or dementia-like symptoms, including: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare brain disorder; Huntington's disease, an inherited, progressive brain disease; Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), caused by repeated traumatic brain injury; HIV-associated dementia (HAD). Certain factors can raise your risk for developing dementia, including: Aging. This is the biggest risk factor for dementia.; Smoking; Uncontrolled diabetes; High blood pressure; Drinking too much alcohol; Having close family members who have dementia. The symptoms of dementia can vary, depending on which parts of the brain are affected. Often, forgetfulness is the first symptom. Dementia also causes problems with the ability to think, problem solve, and reason. For example, people with dementia may: Get lost in a familiar neighborhood; Use unusual words to refer to familiar objects; Forget the name of a close family member or friend; Forget old memories; Need help doing tasks that they used to do by themselves. Some people with dementia cannot control their emotions and their personalities may change. They may become apathetic, meaning that they are no longer interested in normal daily activities or events. They may lose their inhibitions and stop caring about other peoples' feelings. Certain types of dementia can also cause problems with balance and movement. The stages of dementia range from mild to severe. In the mildest stage, it is just beginning to affect a person's functioning. In the most severe stage, the person is completely dependent on others for care. Your health care provider may use many tools to make a diagnosis: A medical history, which includes asking about your symptoms; A physical exam; Tests of your thinking, memory, and language abilities; Other tests, such as blood tests, genetic tests, and brain scans; A mental health evaluation to see whether a...

Dementia is chronic, global, usually irreversible deterioration of cognition. Diagnosis is clinical; laboratory and imaging tests are usually used to identify treatable causes. Treatment is supportive. Cholinesterase inhibitors can sometimes temporarily improve cognitive function.

Dementia describes a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities severely enough to interfere with your daily life. It isn't a specific disease, but several different diseases may cause dementia.

Dementia, chronic, usually progressive deterioration of intellectual capacity associated with the widespread loss of nerve cells and the shrinkage of brain tissue. Dementia is most commonly seen in the elderly (senile dementia), though it is not part of the normal aging process and can affect...