Pseudodementia

A syndrome in which dementia is mimicked or caricatured by a psychiatric disorder such as depression. Symptoms and response to mental status examination questions are similar to those found in verified cases of dementia. In pseudodementia, the chief diagnosis to be considered in the differential is depression in an older person versus cognitive deterioration on the basis of organic disease in the brain.

A psychological disorder in older people characterized by depression and secondary symptoms or dementia.

A condition of extreme apathy found in hysterical people in which their behaviour corresponds to what they imagine to be insanity, though they show no signs of true dementia.

A disorder that is caused by depression and resembles dementia — a widespread loss of intellectual function, including memory, due to a disease affecting the brain. Pseudodementia is not caused by a physical illness and usually can be reversed by time or treatment. It also refers to extreme apathy and indifference in someone who is not suffering from a mental disorder.

An impairment in thinking accompanied by a withdrawal from social interactions that resembles dementia but instead is the result of depression, especially in the elderly.

A condition characterized by depression symptoms that bear resemblance to those of dementia. The preferred term for this condition is now “dementia of depression.”