Dementia is basically a degenerative disease of the brain. It not only affects its functioning but may cause impairments and memory losses. Dementia causes many cognitive deficits and defects and one cannot completely treat this disease. Once development and progression of dementia starts, it is irreversible. Dementia causes loss of memory, along with impairments in the sensory system, the person losses control over his or her impulse system, may not remember things and last stage leads to complete memory loss. Moreover, its onset is usually seen in old aged people and adults. Children showing symptoms of dementia are hardly seen.

Dementia is categorized on the basis of the portions of the brain i.e. cortical and sub cortical. Mainly there are three types of dementia seen in patients; Primary degenerative dementia, Atherosclerotic dementia and the third type of dementia shows symptoms of both the two types mentioned earlier. Majority of the medical research has shown prevalence of the first type of dementia in most patients i.e. the Primary degenerative dementia. Many argue that this is because most doctors confuse primary with atherosclerotic and diagnose patients having the latter one falsely.

Dementia causes not only impaired functioning but deterioration in sexual impulses and linguistic areas too. People in the last stages of disease usually show no contact with the reality. They do not remember their loved one, they do not talk or respond to when they are called and basically become a vegetable. There are many underlying causes of dementia, which can be treated themselves, but this does not mean that you can treat dementia since it is irreversible. Treating the underlying cause can however, help the patient in many ways.

Talking about the causes of dementia, they are a few is number. People can develop dementia if they have suffered from head trauma, tumors or seizures. Moreover, conditions in the body such as hypoxemia, hypothermia, hyperthermia, substance intoxication and abuse can all lead to self induced dementia. Apart from all this exposure to toxins, metals and drugs may also causes symptoms seen in dementia and metabolic imbalances such as acid-base imbalance and chemicals imbalances in the human body can also be a cause. Lastly psychological stresses such a relocation stress, sensory overload or deprivation, sleep deprivation and immobilization can all lead to development of dementia.

Dementia can be diagnosed through various tests, and doctors’ use different sets of strategies to identify this disease. The patient may be asked to answer many questions, undertake physical exams, and go through various tests to eliminate any treatable conditions of the disease. Future tests will be based on what the doctors find out in the physical exams and may head in one direction or the other depending on the previous results. The tests measure the patient’s orientation, memory and recall capabilities and attention span. Deteriorated conditions in these tests can show chances of the person developing progressive dementia.