Dementia

Etiology

Reversible causes

  • Hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism
  • Depression
  • Drugs, eg, anticholinergics, sedatives, antipsychotics, opioids
  • Vitamin B12 or thiamine deficiency
  • Hypercalcemia
  • Uremic or hepatic encephalopathy
  • Space-occupying lesion, eg, brain tumor, subdural hematoma
  • Neurosyphilis
  • HIV
  • Normal pressure hydrocephalus
  • Wilson’s disease
  • Sleep apnea
  • Chronic meningitis
Irreversible causes
  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • Vascular (multi-infarct) dementia
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Dementia with Lewy bodies
  • Huntington’s disease
  • Frontotemporal dementia, eg, Pick’s disease
  • Progressive supranuclear palsy
  • Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

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Last updated: December 1, 2014