What is dementia?

What is dementia?

Dementia is a description of the state of a person’s mental function and not a specific disease.

Dementia entails a decline in mental function from a previously higher level that’s severe enough to interfere with daily living. A person with dementia has two or more of these specific difficulties, including a decline in:

• Memory.
• Reasoning.
• Language.
• Coordination.
• Mood.
• Behavior.

Dementia develops when the parts of your brain involved with learning, memory, decision-making or language are affected by infections or diseases. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.

But other known causes of dementia include:

• Vascular dementia.
• Dementia with Lewy bodies.
• Frontotemporal dementia.
• Mixed dementia.
• Dementia due to Parkinson’s disease.
• Dementia-like conditions due to reversible causes, such as medication side effects or thyroid problems.