A chronic, progressive dementia associated with generalized atrophy of the brain involving the death of neurons from unknown causes. It is not due to aging per se but may be a late form of alzheimer’s disease. Deterioration may range from minimal to severe. It must be carefully separated from reversible brain syndrome, resulting from many causes. In DSM-III-R, it is listed as primary degenerative dementia, senile onset.
An outdated term for dementia. Previously, dementia was thought to be part of the normal aging process, but today we know that most people do not become demented as they grow older and that dementia, when it occurs, is due to some specific disease process.
Mental degeneration affecting elderly people.
The gradual, progressive loss with age of cognitive function.
Mental disorder of the aged, resulting from atrophy and degeneration of the brain, with no signs of cerebrovascular disease. Symptoms, which are generally slowly progressive, include loss of memory, periods of confusion and irritability, confabulation (invention of fictitious details about a past event that may or may not have occurred), and poor judgment. Also called senile psychosis.
Loss of the intellectual faculties, beginning for the first time in old age.
Dementia was traditionally divided into presenile and senile types; this is increasingly recognized as an arbitrary division of a condition in which there is a general and often slow decline in mental capabilities. Around 10 per cent of people over 65 years of age and 20 per cent over. 75 are affected by dementing illness, but people under 65 may also be affected. Treatable causes such as brain tumour, head injury, encephalitis and alcoholism are commoner in younger people. Other causes such as cerebrovascular disease which is a major factor, especially among older people or alzheimer’s disease are not readily treatable, although antihypertensive drugs for the former disorder may help, and anticholinesterase inhibitors may slow progress of moderate Alzheimer’s.