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Chronic brain syndrome; Lewy body dementia; DLB; Vascular dementia; Mild cognitive impairment; MCI
Dementia symptoms include difficulty with many areas of mental function, including:
Dementia usually first appears as forgetfulness.
Mild cognitive impairment is the stage between normal forgetfulness due to aging and the development of dementia. People with MCI have mild problems with thinking and memory that do not interfere with everyday activities. They are often aware of the forgetfulness. Not everyone with MCI develops dementia.
Symptoms of MCI include:
The early symptoms of dementia can include:
As the dementia becomes worse, symptoms are more obvious and interfere with the ability to take care of yourself. The symptoms may include:
People with severe dementia can no longer:
Other symptoms that may occur with dementia:
Dementia can often be diagnosed with a history and physical exam by a skilled doctor or nurse. A health care provider will take a history, do a physical exam (including a neurological exam), and perform some tests of mental function called a mental status examination.
The health care provider may order tests to help determine whether other problems could be causing dementia or making it worse. These conditions include:
The following tests and procedures may be done:
Brewer JB, Gabrieli JDE, Preston AR, Vaidya CJ, Rosen AC. Memory. In: Goetz CG, ed. Textbook of Clinical Neurology. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier;2007:chap 5.
Farlow MR, Cummings JL. Effective pharmacologic management of Alzheimer's disease. Am J Med, 2007;120:388-397.
Burns A, Iliffe S. Alzheimer's disease. BMJ. 2009;338:b158.doi:10.1136/bmj.b158.
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