Dementia Flashcards
Definition of dementia?
Progressive impairment of memory and cognition, +/- personality change
Screening tests for cognitive impairment?
6 item cognitive impairment test
Management of suspected cognitive impairment?
Screen for reversible causes
Referral to old age psychiatry
Commonest form of dementia?
Alzheimer’s disease
Drug management of cognitive symptoms in AD
Mild/moderate- anticholinesterase inhibitors e.g. donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine
Moderate-severe- addition of memantine (glutamate receptor antagonist)
Normal presenting symptom of Alzheimer’s disease?
Loss of recent memory
Abrupt change or stepwise change suggests…
Vascular dementia
Cognitive impairment, urinary incontinence + gait disorder
Normal pressure hydrocephalus
Visual hallucinations, parkinsonism, disturbed sleep
Lewy body dementia
Personality change and behavioural disturbance; memory may be relatively preserved
Frontotemporal dementia
Antipsychotics which are licnesed for non-cognitive symptoms of dementia?
Risperidone
Haloperidol
Treatment of vascular dementia
Address vascular risk factors
