I'd like to welcome everybody to today's presentation of Alzheimer's and dementia's,

types, symptoms, and consequences. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipe. Now, next week, we are

going to be talking about the interventions. Today is sort of part one, if you will,

of dementia. We're going to discuss the different types of

dementias, their causes, symptoms, and course. We'll identify disorders frequently misdiagnosed as

dementia, and we're also going to talk about conditions that frequently co-occur with dementias.

And then we'll touch on screening tools and tasks for dementia care.

Most of the stuff for screening tools will come next week.

Dementia is an umbrella term describing a syndrome characterized by a decline in

cognitive function significant enough to interfere with daily life.

Now, a lot of times we think cognitive function, so it only affects their thinking.

No, it doesn't.

It affects their entire nervous system.

And we need to start thinking more broadly about people's abilities to function instead of just the way they think, the way they

are able to manage their life. Alzheimer's disease is one specific type of dementia. People with

dementia display a broad range of cognitive impairments, behavioral symptoms, and mood changes.

It's important to recognize that some of these changes that are happening cognitively as we

have neuronal decline impact the brain's ability to modulate neurotransmitters and hormones, and it impacts a lot of stuff

going on under the hood, if you will. The development of multiple cognitive deficits is required

in dementia as evidenced by both memory impairment and, oops, agitation. And what we're going to talk

about is memory impairment and cognitive disturbances, I'm sorry, and you're also going to have

agitation. Memory impairment is the impaired ability to learn or remember new information.

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