About dementia

What is dementia?

• Dementia is a broad term used to describe a group of symptoms that cause progressive damage to the brain.¹
• Dementia is not a specific disease, but rather, refers to the long-term and often gradual decline in a person’s ability to think, remember, and function in regular daily activities.² Changes to personality, mood and difficulty using and/or understanding language may also occur.³
• Dementia is not a normal part of ageing, although its incidence does increase with age.⁴
• The terms ‘dementia’ and ‘Alzheimer’s disease’ are often used synonymously. However, dementia refers to a group of cognitive symptoms, such as memory loss and confusion, while Alzheimer’s refers to a specific type of dementia.⁵

Prevalence in Australia

• Dementia affects almost 1 in 10 people aged 65 years and above in Australia.⁶
• Estimates suggest between 400,000 and 459,000 Australians are currently living with dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for up to 70 per cent of diagnosed cases.³
• Just over 1per cent of people living with dementia are estimated to be under 60 years of age.⁶
• In 2018, dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, was the leading cause of death for females in Australia, accounting for 9,973.

Risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease

There are five known risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease:

1. Age –  The older the person is, the greater their risk of developing the disease.⁷ The likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s doubles about every five years after age 65.⁷ After age 85, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease reaches almost one-third.⁷
2. Gender – Alzheimer’s disease appears to affect more women than men.⁸
3. Family history – The risk of developing the disease is greater if a primary relative (parent, grandparent or sibling) develop/developed Alzheimer’s disease prior to the age of 65 years.⁷
4. Head injury – A severe head injury or repeated blows to the head may increase the risk of developing dementia, but not necessarily Alzheimer’s disease.⁷
5. Down syndrome – For unknown reasons, people with Down Syndrome are prone to developing Alzheimer’s disease in their thirties or forties.⁹

Dementia warning signs

• Early warning signs of dementia vary between individuals, but most commonly, memory loss and impairment are hallmark features of the disease.¹⁰
• Although at times, everyone can become forgetful, memory difficulties in Alzheimer’s disease are more consistent, and include misplacing items, failing to remember appointments, and/or repeating the same topic or question.¹⁰

• Another early symptom of dementia is difficulty performing routine, everyday tasks.¹⁰
• The sequencing of steps to perform a task may be out of order, or in some cases, the person with dementia may skip a step completely.¹⁰

• Often, an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease is when a person becomes disorientated in a familiar place. The person may suddenly not know where they are, not know how to drive home, or forget why they visited the shops.¹⁰
• Frequently forgetting the time, date and day of the week can also be indicative of dementia.¹⁰

• A person with dementia may frequently forget the names of objects, referring to certain items as “things” or “that”. They may also have difficulty putting sentences together and understanding complex instructions.¹⁰

• Poor or impaired judgement may present as difficulty judging distances, not taking usual safety precautions (e.g. turning off the stove), wearing summer clothing on a cold day, and/or driving erratically, or not following road rules.¹⁰

• Personality changes include heightened irritability, increased agitation, easily angered, more suspicious, and/or more self-centred and disinhibited. Changes may also include a loss of interest in hobbies and activities, as well as social withdrawal.¹⁰

Types of dementia

• Irreversible causes – include a number of diseases and conditions which affect the brain and lead to progressive and permanent damage to brain cells.¹¹
  • Examples of irreversible dementia include Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular dementia.¹²
  • Other conditions include Frontotemporal dementia,  Lewy  Body Disease, Huntington’ Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.¹²
• Reversible causes – Reversible causes of dementia are conditions that mimic dementia symptoms but do not cause progressive or permanent brain damage¹³ They are conditions which are usually treatable and or preventable such as delirium, depression, drug side effects, thyroid conditions and B12 deficiency.¹³

• There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. There are neither medication or therapies to halt the progression, or reverse damage that has already occurred.¹⁴ There are some medications that can be trialled to help slow disease progression and manage the behavioural changes associated with the disease.¹¹

Contact Alzheimer’s Queensland

• About dementia
• Dementia resources

References

1. Better Health Channel. Dementia – different types. 2014 [cited November 2020]; Available from: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/dementia-different-types.

2. Dementia Australia. What is dementia? [cited November 2020]; Available from: https://www.dementia.org.au/about-dementia/what-is-dementia.

3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Dementia. 2020; Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/dementia.

4. Evans, S.C., Ageism and Dementia, in Contemporary Perspectives on Ageism, L. Ayalon and C. Tesch-Römer, Editors. 2018, Springer International Publishing: Cham. p. 263-275.

5. Alzheimer’s Association. Dementia vs. Alzheimer’s Disease: What is the Difference? [cited November 2020]; Available from: https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/difference-between-dementia-and-alzheimer-s.

6. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Dementia, in Australia’s health 2016. 2016.

7. Alzheimer’s Association. Causes and Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease. [cited November 2020]; Available from: https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/causes-and-risk-factors.

8. Beam, C.R., et al., Differences Between Women and Men in Incidence Rates of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s disease : JAD, 2018. 64(4): p. 1077-1083.

9. National Institute on Ageing (NIH). Alzheimer’s Disease in People with Down Syndrome. 2017 [cited November 2020]; Available from: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/alzheimers-disease-people-down-syndrome.

10. Better Health Channel. Dementia – early signs. [cited November 2020]; Available from: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/dementia-early-signs.

11. National Institute on Aging (NIH). Alzheimer’s Disease Fact Sheet. 2019; Available from: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/alzheimers-disease-fact-sheet.

12. Bello, V.M.E. and R.R. Schultz, Prevalence of treatable and reversible dementias: A study in a dementia outpatient clinic. Dementia & neuropsychologia, 2011. 5(1): p. 44-47.

13. Chari, D., R. Ali, and R. Gupta, Reversible dementia in elderly: Really uncommon? 2015. 2(1): p. 30-37.

14. Dementia Australia. Dementia treatments and cure. [cited November 2020]; Available from: https://www.dementia.org.au/about-dementia/dementia-research/dementia-treatments-and-cure.