Define Senility
People use the term "senility" to describe the mental decline of the elderly, but that term is medically outdated. Dementia is now the preferred term, according to MedicineNet.com, which estimates that as many as 6.8 million people in the United States have dementia. Dementia is not a disease itself; it's a group of symptoms that affect thinking, memory and reasoning. Dementia is not a normal part of aging; it's caused by a variety of disorders that affect the brain. Here are the five most common.
Other People Are Reading
-
Alzheimer's Disease
-
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in people aged 65 and older. Experts believe that up to 4 million people in the United States are currently living with the disease, according to MedicineNet.com. Symptoms usually appear after age 60. Over a period of seven to 10 years, AD causes a gradual decline in brain functions, such as memory, movement, language, judgment, behavior and abstract thinking.
Vascular Dementia
-
This is the second most common cause of dementia. According to the Mayo Clinic, the term describes impairments caused by problems in blood vessels that feed the brain, such as a stroke. People with vascular dementia frequently wander at night and often have other problems commonly found in stroke survivors, such as depression and incontinence. "Because few treatments are available for vascular dementia, prevention is crucial," says the world-renown hospital.
-
Lewy Body Dementia
-
Lewy body dementia (LBD) is another common type of dementia. According to the Lewy Body Dementia Association, it affects an estimated 1.3 million individuals and their families in the United States. The symptoms resemble Alzheimer's disease, such as memory problems, poor judgment and confusion. LBD typically also includes visual hallucinations, shuffling gait, and day-to-day changes in symptom severity.
Subcortical Dementia
-
Subcortical dementia affects attention, motivation and emotionality, rather than reasoning, according to the Memory Disorders Project at Rutgers University. Early symptoms include depression, clumsiness, irritability or apathy. As the disease progresses, memory and judgment problems arise. This type of dementia is associated with Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and HIV.
Frontotemporal Dementia
-
Frontotemporal dementia describes a diverse group of uncommon disorders that primarily affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain---the areas generally associated with personality, behavior and language, according to the Mayo Clinic. Signs and symptoms vary, depending upon the portion of the brain affected. Some people with this form of dementia undergo dramatic changes in their personality and become socially inappropriate or impulsive, while others lose the ability to use and understand language. It's often misdiagnosed as a psychiatric problem or as Alzheimer's disease, experts say.
-
