Interesting
facts about dementia
·
There are more than
one hundred conditions that cause dementia.
·
Although dementia is
far more common in the geriatric population, it may occur as a child.
·
Dementia is currently
the 2nd largest cause of disability burden after depression.
·
Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of
dementia, accounts for between 50 percent and 70 percent of all cases.
·
Dementia reduces the
ability to learn, reason, retain or recall past experience and there is also
loss of patterns of thoughts, feelings and activities.
·
More than 5 million of
the US population suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
·
In the coming years
dementia is projected to be the largest source of burden of disease for women
and the 5th largest for men.
·
Dementia, though often
treatable to some degree, is usually due to causes that are progressive and
incurable.
·
Chronic use of
substances such as alcohol or recreational drugs can also predispose the
patient to cognitive changes suggestive of dementia.
·
Dementia ranks as the
fourth leading cause of death among the population aged 65 years and over.
·
There are now an
estimated twenty-four million people living with some form of dementia in the
world.
·
Less than ten percent
of cases of dementia are due to causes that may presently be reversed with
treatment.
·
Alzheimer's disease is
the 7th leading cause of death in the United States.
·
Depression affects
20–30 percent of people who have dementia.
