The "To Keep Up" Wiki

A collection of information. This is not definitive and detailed, consult elsewhere for this info; and this is not something you should rely upon for diagnosis or treatment.

Information here from Alzheimer's & Dementia for Dummies ISBN 978=1-119-18773-8 (much material is taken from and verbatim from this book) available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BHBW9JA, Lexington Cary Memorial Library, and likely elsewhere.

Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Dementia is a general category of medical conditions that affect normal brain functioning.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines dementia as [A] syndrome – usually of a chronic or progressive nature – in which there is deterioration in cognitive function (i.e., the ability to process thought) beyone what might be expected from normal aging. It affects memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language, and judgement. Consciousness is not affected. The impairment in cognitive function is commonly accompanied, and occasionally preceded, by deterioration in emotional control, social behavior, or motivation.

Some terms used

• Syndrome: symptoms that together are characteristic of a particular medical condition. (People with the condition have most of these symptoms but don't show all of them to receive the diagnosis.)
• Chronic and progressive: the condition is ongoing long term [chronic] and gets steadily worse with time [progressive].
• Consciousness: in relation to dementia, people with dementia are awake and mentally aware of their surroundings, although what's going on around them is confusing to them.

The most common misconceptions about dementia

• All old people get dementia. Nope, it's not part of growing old. 1 in 9 older than 65 and 1 in 3 older than 85 suffer from it.
• Dementia is same as Alzheimer's disease. Nope, Alzheimer's is one of a number of brain diseases that lead to dementia.
• Memory loss equals dementia. Nope, while dementia does affect memory, a diagnosis of dementia requires that a person show many other more complex symptoms.
• Everyone with dementia becomes aggressive. Nope, although some with dementia can become agitated, aggression isn't always a part of dementia, and it's usually triggered by the way someone is treated or communicated with.
• A diagnosis of dementia means a person's life is over. Nope, many medical, social, and psychological treatments and strategies are available.
• Everyone with dementia ends up in a nursing home. Nope, although 1/3 of people with dementia require more intensive care, many people can get enough help and support to stay in their own homes.
• My relative has dementia, so I'm going to get it too. Nope, while some forms of dementia have a genetic component and may run in families, this is the minority, it doesn't follow that you'll get it. And it's not something you can “catch”.

Alzheimer's is a form of dementia; those with {(Alzheimer's Disease|AD)} have dementia, but not all those with dementia have AD.