Dementia - Symptoms & Causes

Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia in the UK, accounting for about 60% of all dementia cases. It’s a complex physical disease that damages the brain, impairing the patient’s memory, thinking, and behaviour. Alzheimer’s disease is caused by the buildup of amyloid and tau inside the brain. These two substances form plaques and tangles that damage the brain and compromise its functions.

This is the second most common cause of dementia. Lewy bodies are microscopic structures composed of alpha-synuclein proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease. They build up in the brain and damage nerve cells, causing memory, thinking, and movement problems.

Vascular dementia develops as a result of brain damage caused by blood flow issues, usually heart disease or stroke. A stroke, or brain attack, happens when something blocks the blood supply to the brain or a blood vessel bursts in the brain. There are several sub-types of vascular dementia, depending on the cause and the affected part of the brain.

The term “frontotemporal dementia” describes a group of neurological disorders that affect the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes. These are regions of the brain associated with behaviour, language, and personality. Those with frontotemporal dementia may exhibit profound behavioural changes and difficulty with speech and language. The cause of the disease is unclear, but research suggests it’s linked to genetic disorders and mutations.

Excessive and prolonged alcohol consumption can lead to dementia. Alcohol can gradually damage the brain regions responsible for memory, learning, perception, movement, and speech. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is a common example of dementia-causing alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD).

CTE is a neurological condition primarily caused by repeated trauma to the head and brain. Blunt blows to the head can gradually and irreversibly damage the brain. If those injuries affect the brain areas involved with memory, thinking, reasoning, or behaviour, the patient might develop some form of dementia.

This is a type of young-onset dementia that affects children. Childhood dementia is quite rare; its incidence rate in the UK is only 1 in 2,900 births. The disease is caused by progressive brain damage linked to over 100 rare genetic disorders.

One or more types of dementia may manifest in the brain at the same time. For instance, a person with Alzheimer’s disease may also have Lewy body dementia. It’s not always apparent that a person has mixed dementia because the symptoms usually overlap. However, mixed dementia often progresses faster than any single form of dementia.