A few words on dementia

There are many forms of dementia. First of all, we distinguish between primary and secondary dementia. Secondary dementia is caused by another disease, such as Parkinson’s disease, a brain tumor, Korsakov’s syndrome or depression. In secondary dementia, the dementia symptoms can regress, and the underlying primary disease might be curable. However, secondary dementia only accounts for 10 % of dementia cases. In 90 % of all cases, it is a primary dementia.

Primary dementia directly originates in the brain and leaves permanent damage. The most common form of dementia, accounting for more than 60 % of cases, is Alzheimer’s disease (which is not the focus of this article). Other primary forms of dementia are vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob…