Lamiaa Moustafa Elbosaty
The causes of dementia: can be divided into two groups:
1. Potentially reversible dementia:
It also known as secondary dementia, it occurs as a result of some other pathological processes and has a specific treatable cause, it includes the following:
§ Metabolic causes:
As renal failure (diuretics, dehydration, obstruction), hyponatromia, salt wasting, hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia, hepatic encephalopathy, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, and Wilson's disease. Other associated causes are anoxia, anemia, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and vitamin deficiencies, e.g., B12, folic acid, thiamin (Keltner et al., 2003).
§ Psychiatric causes:
These include depression, schizophrenia, toxic, drugs (prescription or stress), alcohol, and chemical poisoning (e.g., arsenic, mercury, lead, lithium) and other metals as organic compounds and solvents (Harvey et al., 2003).
§ Infection agents:
They include infection and/or fever particularly in elders, e.g., pneumonia, urinary tract infections, AIDS, neuro syphilis, chronic meningitis, brain abscess, and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (Schultz & Videbeck, 2002). The exact prevalence of AIDS related dementia is not known, although it is estimated to occur in as many as 40% of individuals with (HIV) infection and in up to 90% of clients dying of AIDS (Ress, 2003).
§ Miscellaneous causes:
Neoplasm's, cerebral vasculitis, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and multiple sclerosis as well as brain disorders such as stoke and trauma, e.g., subdural hematoma and post concussion syndrome. It is estimated that 30- 40% of persons with memory disturbance have a reversible dementia, therefore, can be treated (Newell et al., 2000).
1. Irreversible dementia :
It is known also as primary dementia, it is not reversible, progressive, and not secondary to any other disorder and when reversible causes of intellectual impairment can't be identified, the clinical diagnosis is presumed to be a non reversible dementia. It includes Alzheimer's diseased, vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, dementia due to Parkinson's disease, front-temporal dementia, dementia due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Huntington's disease, HIV disease, normal pressure hydrocephalus, subdural hematoma, Pick's disease, vitamin B12 deficiency, substance-induced persisting dementia, and alcohol related dementia (Kochanek et al., 2001).
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