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What is AD? | Dementia | Just the Facts
Causes | Signs | Normal Aging | Treatment
Causes
Conditions That Can Cause Dementia
Degenerative diseases:
- Alzheimer's disease
- Parkinson's disease
- Pick's disease
- Huntington's disease
- Progressive supranuclear palsy
- Cerebellar degenerations
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Parkinson-ALS-dementia complex of Guam
and other island areas
- Rare genetic and metabolic disease (e.g.,
Wilson's)
Vascular dementia:
- Multi-infarct dementia
- Cortical micro-infarcts
- Lacunar dementia
- Binswanger disease
- Cerebral embolic disease
Anoxia dementia:
- Cardiac arrest
- Cardiac failure (severe)
- Carbon dementia
Traumatic dementia:
- Dementia pugilistica (boxer's dementia)
- Head injuries
Infectious dementia:
- Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
(AIDS)
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
- Progressive multifocal
Leukoencephalopathy
- Post-encephalitic dementia
- Behcet's syndrome
- Herpes encephalitis
- Fungal meningitis or encephalitis
- Parasitic encephalitis
- Brain abscess
- Neurosyphilis
Normal pressure hydrocephalus
Space-occupying lesions:
- Chronic or acute subdural hematoma
primary brain tumor
- Metastatic tumors
Multiple sclerosis
Auto-immune disorder:
- Disseminated lupus erythematosus
- Vasculitis
Toxic dementia:
- Alcoholic dementia
- Metallic dementia (e.g., lead poisoning)
- Organic poisons (e.g., solvents, some
insecticides)
Other disorders:
- Epilepsy
- Whipple disease
- Heat stroke
Source: Losing a Million Minds by the Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Congress, 1987, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, and "Senility Reconsidered" by the National Institute on Aging Task Force, 1980, Journal of the American Medical Association, 224, pp. 261-262. Adapted by permission (pending).
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