What is Dementia?

The term 'Dementia' is used to describe a progressive decline in a persons' ability to remember, think and reason. It is a condition most commonly associated with 'growing old' and it can be caused by a number of things which result in the death of brain cells in critical areas of the brain.

Working Age Dementia

Dementia can affect younger adults (under 65 years of age) and whilst it is still rare, it is increasingly being recognised as an important medical and social issue. Causes of dementia in younger adults are often similar to those affecting older people. However the needs of this group of people are very different it raises issues relating to employment, young dependent families, relationships and financial difficulties. For this reason Young Onset dementia is now often referred to as 'Working Age Dementia'. 

There are a number of different diseases and disorders that can cause dementia, most of which are incurable. The most common disease causing dementia is Alzheimer's Disease.

Dementia most often affects older people, although younger people can also develop dementia. There are approximately 700,000 people with dementia in the UK (1.1% of the entire population), 15,000 of whom are under the age of 65. The risk of developing dementia increases with age. 1 in 14 people over the age of 65 has dementia and over the age of 80 this figure increases to 1 in 6.

These are some difficulties that people with dementia might experience:
●  Problems remembering recent events, conversations and names events, conversations and names                  
●  Incontinence
●  Difficulty in understanding what is being said
●  Disorientation in time and place                    
●  Shorter attention span                                  
●  Difficulty in finding the right words to express thoughts
●  Confused thought processes            
●  Problems with reasoning                              
●  Mood swings and behavioural changes
●  Difficulty making decisions or plans  
●  Problems in performing everyday tasks
●  Seeing or hearing things that aren't there       
●  Social disinhibition
●  Becoming anxious or withdrawn
●  Perceptual problems - e.g. problems recognising faces or objects     
●  Becoming restless or agitated
●  Losing capacity for self care

There are over 100 types of dementia. These include:
●  Alzheimer's Disease (accounts for 62% of dementia in the UK)
●  Vascular Dementia, e.g. multi-infarct dementia (17%)
●  Mixed Dementia - Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular dementia occurring together (10%)
●  Dementia with Lewy Bodies (4%)
●  Parkinson's Disease
●  Frontal Lobe Degeneration
●  Motor Neurone Disease
●  Primary Progressive Aphasia
●  Corticobasal Degeneration
●  Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
●  Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease
●  AIDS
●  Huntington's Disease
●  Binswanger's Disease
●  Neimann-Pick Disease Type C