Dementia affects the brain's ability to think, reason and remember clearly. The most common affected areas include memory, visual-spatial, language, attention, and executive function (problem solving).
Most types of dementia are slow and progressive. By the time the person shows signs of the disease, the process in the brain has been happening for a long time. It is possible for a patient to have two types of dementia at the same time.
About 10% of people with dementia have what is known as mixed dementia, which is usually a combination of Alzheimer's disease and another type of dementia such as frontotemporal dementia or vascular dementia. Additional psychological and behavioral problems that often affect people who have dementia include:
Disinhibition and impulsivity
Depression and/or anxiety
Agitation
Balance problems
Tremor
Speech and language difficulty
Trouble eating or swallowing
Delusions (often believing people are stealing from them) or hallucinations
Memory distortions (believing that a memory has already happened when it has not, thinking an old memory is a new one, combining two memories, or confusing the people in a memory)
Wandering or restlessness
When people with dementia are put in circumstances beyond their abilities, there may be a sudden change to tears or anger (a "catastrophic reaction").
Depression affects 20–30% of people who have dementia, and about 20% have anxiety. Psychosis (often delusions of persecution) and agitation/aggression also often accompany dementia. Each of these must be assessed and treated independently of the underlying dementia. (Wiki).
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