Types of Dementia and Treatment Options

Understanding the Types of Dementia:

We call the process of knowing and perceiving cognition. When people get dementia or related disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, they experience a cognitive weakness and decline that impacts their daily living.

Over 50 different medical conditions produce symptoms of dementia, and the nature of these symptoms can vary. Early symptoms can be subtle. That’s why Dr. Spiegel takes such a comprehensive approach to diagnosing his patients. Knowing precisely which type of dementia you or your loved one may be suffering from enables him to prescribe the best possible course of care.

Mild Cognitive Impairment / Early Onset Dementia:

Those with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) experience the kind of forgetfulness that people sometimes jokingly refer to as senior moments. They misplace keys and wallets and forget names of songs and movies or of people they just met. People with MCI may also have trouble following conversations. But they don’t require assistance from others to function in their daily lives.

When dementia occurs in people under age 65, doctors refer to it as early onset. Most often early onset dementia strikes those in their early 50s, though rarely people have been affected as early as their mid-20s.

Not everybody with MCI will progress to more advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Many have symptoms that plateau or even reverse themselves. But studies suggest that the people with a greater degree of cognitive impairment tend to be most at risk of progressing to more serious forms of dementia later in life.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia:

• Alzheimer’s Disease:

Accounting for 60-80 percent of all dementia cases, this unforgiving condition results from the brain’s nerve cells slowly failing over time. Two out of three Alzheimer’s victims are women. In 2016, one in nine U.S. citizens over the age of 65 are afflicted. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, unless a cure is found, by 2050, as many as 7 million
people aged 85 and up could have Alzheimer’s disease, including half of those aged 65 and older.

The disease has three stages:

• Early stage: mild cognitive impairment (see above)
• Middle stage: greater cognitive decline with further memory loss, loss of focus, difficulty planning and organizing, trouble following conversation or written language, and mood and behavioral changes
• Late stage: severe, eventually preventing the person from verbally communicating, walking unassisted or feeding themselves.

Diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease early can enable patients to regain and prolong their independence.

• Vascular Dementia:

This common form of dementia results when blood flow to the brain is impaired, such as when a person has a stroke or series of strokes. Vascular dementia, including the subcortical variety, severely impacts cognitive functioning and memory. Frequently its symptoms appear suddenly. Our patients with vascular dementia report improvements to their condition with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT).

Other Types of Dementia

Less commonly diagnosed forms of dementia include: Lewy Body Disease, brain trauma dementia, Parkinson’s dementia, frontal-temporal lobe dementia, Huntington’s disease, and dementia caused by cancer or substance abuse.