How Does Dementia Happen?
Dementia is a degenerative illness that occurs primarily in older people. Those affected by dementia suffer a compounding loss of cognitive ability; memory, attention, language and problem solving are usually affected. Dementia is commonly thought to be a single disease. However, there are three distinct types of dementia, each with a distinct cause and result.
Dementia arises primarily from three different causes, and these can result in fixed cognitive impairment, slowly progressive dementia or rapidly progressive dementia.
Fixed Cognitive Impairment
Fixed cognitive impairment is usually the result of some kind of trauma to brain tissue. This trauma may be caused by direct trauma to the brain, excessive alcohol use, or be the use of certain drugs. These factors, as well as others, can cause localized damage to certain parts of the brain. Depending on the part of the brain damaged, different cognitive functions can be impaired. Fixed cognitive impairment may be irreversible, but is usually static and not progressive.
Slowly Progressive Dementia
Slowly progressive dementia however, is primarily the result of neurodegenerative disease. This usually results in an irreversible deterioration of neurons in the brain, producing the symptoms most commonly associated with dementia. Slowly progressive dementia usually results in the affected losing cognitive ability over a period of up to a few years. The primary causes to slowly progressive dementia are Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.
Rapidly Progressive Dementia
Rapidly progressive dementia shares many of its symptoms with slowly progressive dementia, the difference being that cognitive ability can be greatly compromised in just weeks or months. The most common cause of rapidly progressive dementia is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. This disease results from brain matter being infected by prions. These infectious misfolded proteins can infect other cells around them, resulting in loss of function of those cells.
Other Types of Dementia
Dementia can also be caused by a variety of other conditions, including Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis