Dementia Significant loss of intellectual abilitiessuch as memory capacity, severe enough to interfere with social or occupationalfunctioning. Criteria for the diagnosis of dementiainclude impairment of attention, orientation, memory, judgment, language, motorand spatial skills. By definition, dementia is not due to major depression or psychosis.Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause ofdementia. Other causes include but are not limited to: AIDS, alcoholism (the dementia is due to thiamine deficiency), insufficient blood flow to the brain (vascular dementia), braininjury, brain tumors, drug toxicity, multiplesclerosis, and infections of the central nervous system. |
