UNDERSTANDING DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER'S: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Medically reviewed by Smita Patel, DO
Most types of dementia involve memory loss, impaired thinking skills, and loss of independence. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, and some new diagnostic tests can help distinguish Alzheimer’s disease from other types and may help guide treatment planning.
What Is Dementia?
Dementia means that a person is gradually and permanently losing their cognitive abilities.
Cognitive abilities include:
- Memory
- Decision-making skills
- Insight
- Maintaining focus and concentration
- Good judgment
- Appropriate social interactions
Dementia means that a person had these abilities previously and is gradually losing them. Dementia typically affects people after age 60, and usually progresses to the point where a person is unable to take care of themselves.
Symptoms of dementia can involve:
- Forgetting recent facts
- Forgetting where you put something
- Difficulty following conversations
- Decreased ability to manage money and everyday tasks
- Personality changes
- Lack of motivation
- Loss of appetite or unusually increased appetite
- Sleep disturbances and sleeping during the day
- Inappropriate behavior, such as taking something that is not yours
- Getting lost in familiar places
- Mood changes, such as anxiety, sadness, and agitation
- Being suspicious of others (especially when you can’t remember things)
Sometimes, during early stages of dementia, people may notice that they are losing their own cognitive abilities. As dementia progresses, most people lose insight and are unaware of their own problem.
What Is Alzheimer’s Disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. The most recognizable and earliest symptom of Alzheimer’s disease is a decline in memory. Usually, Alzheimer’s disease also causes personality changes, loss of appetite, and disrupted sleep.
Sometimes, the symptoms can help a healthcare provider diagnose a person’s specific type of dementia. But it can be difficult to distinguish Alzheimer’s disease from other types of dementia, because there is a lot of overlap in the symptoms.
Changes in the Brain and Causes
Alzheimer’s disease causes certain changes in the brain:
- Atrophy (shrinking) of the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is involved in memory and emotions
- Accumulation of certain particles in the brain, called beta amyloid and tau protein
- Eventually, atrophy affects the whole brain
Researchers are still not sure whether Alzheimer’s disease causes these changes in the brain or whether the changes in the brain cause Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s still not clear what the trigger is that initiates all these changes.
There have been some genetic changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease—but it’s important to know that many people who have Alzheimer’s disease do not have these genes.
Diagnosis
Diagnostic testing for Alzheimer's disease includes:
- Medical history and physical examination
- Amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) scan
- Genetic testing
- Ruling out other causes of dementia with blood tests and brain imaging, such as brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized tomography (CT)
Other Types of Dementia
Some common types of dementia besides Alzheimer’s disease include.
- Vascular dementia: This type is caused by small strokes, and people who have vascular dementia may also have other stroke effects—such as weakness of one side of the body, speech impairment, or vision changes. Usually, people who have vascular dementia have several strokes that can be seen on a brain MRI or CT.
- Frontotemporal dementia: This type of dementia occurs due to atrophy of the areas at the front and sides of the brain. The most recognizable symptoms are a loss of social inhibition, inappropriate behavior, and lack of self-care.
- Lewy body dementia: This type of dementia is caused by an accumulation of Lewy bodies (a type of abnormal protein deposit) in certain areas of the brain. It often causes memory loss, behavioral changes, and movement changes similar to those of Parkinson’s disease dementia.
- Wernicke-Korsakoff disease: This disease is caused by chronic alcohol use and thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency. Symptoms include loss of balance, trouble walking, confusion, blurry vision, and hallucinations (seeing things that are not there).
What to Expect
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, you can expect a gradual decline in cognitive abilities. You may eventually need to rely on family members or a healthcare professional to help you with day-to-day tasks.
Some medications have recently been approved for treating Alzheimer’s disease:
- Kisunla (donanemab) and Leqembi (lecanemab): Approved for slowing down disease progression
- Aricept (donepezil), Exelon (rivastigmine), Namenda (memantine), Razadyne (galantamine), and Zunveyl (benzgalantamine): Approved for managing symptoms
Key Takeaways
- Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, and like other types of dementia, it involves decreased memory, impaired thinking skills, personality changes, loss of inhibition, and decreased ability for self-care.
- Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease can involve evaluation of symptoms, physical examination, genetic tests, and amyloid PET scan, as well as ruling out other causes of dementia.
- Newer treatments for Alzheimer’s disease include Leqembi (lecanemab) and Kisunla (donanemab).
Read the original article on Verywell Health
2025-08-06T13:48:54Z