Often, treatment of the coexisting condition can reduce the degree of impairment, and improve the quality of life. PLX3397 manufacturer dementia may also have multiple etiologies. For example, substance abuse and traumatic brain injur}’ can contribute to dementia of other etiologies as well as cause dementia in their own right, eg, dementia due to head trauma, Korsakoff syndrome, or substance-induced persisting dementia. Anoxia, another common contributing factor,

can result from heart, attack, severe asthma, smoke or carbon monoxide inhalation, high altitude Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical exposure, strangulation, anesthetic accidents, or poisoning. Because an older individual may present with a complex history and multiple medical comorbidities, it is important to diagnose the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical patient, not the disease. What is the etiology of the patient’s dementia? Finally, the clinician must determine the etiology of the dementia. Although there are innumerable causes of dementia, the initial diagnostic focus is usually on the conditions that are most common and those that are potentially Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical modifiable. Dementia of the Alzheimer type is the most common form of dementia. Diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer disease include dementia with gradual onset, and progressive decline that

cannot, be attributed to other conditions.4 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Typically, the first symptom is an inability to learn new information. Other early symptoms include visuospatial deficits, decreased verbal fluency, and subtle personality changes.11 Vascular dementia has a variable onset, presentation, and course due Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to the heterogeneity of cerebrovascular insults that can result in cognitive impairment, although onset is often abrupt with a stepwise progression.12 Vascular dementia is diagnosed when focal neurological signs and symptoms

or laboratory findings indicate the presence of cerebrovascular disease.4 Treatment of the underlying hypertension and vascular disease may prevent further progression of dementia. Dementia of combined vascular and Alzheimer etiology, or mixed dementia, may be more common than pure vascular dementia.13 Other common progressive dementing conditions include the frontotemporal dementias, such as already Pick disease, in which patients often present initially with personality change rather than cognitive impairment, and Lewy body disease, including dementia due to Parkinson disease, which is associated with extrapyramidal signs. Symptoms of dementia due to the human immunodeficiency virus include forgetfulness, impairment, in attention and concentration, psychomotor slowing, poor balance, and tremor.