Is It Alzheimer's or Another Dementia? The Right Answer Matters

A recent summit on dementia held by the U.S. National Institutes of Health detailed how various brain maladies besides Alzheimer's can cause thinking, memory, and judgment to deteriorate, reports National Public Radio . "There's a host of things that can cause loss of cognitive function," says Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center Professor Julie Schneider. She notes most of these diseases are incurable, but it is essential that families receive the correct diagnosis so they can get the best care and plan for the future. Schneider recalls that medical training in the 1980s and '90s stressed Alzheimer's as the root cause of all dementias. However, later research proved that 20 percent to 40 percent of the country's 5.8-million with dementia also are dealing with some other disease. Among the most common non-Alzheimer's-related causes of dementia are vascular disease, Lewy body disease, and frontotemporal lobar degeneration.