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Article: Dementia
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Aging
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DEMENTIA
The word
dementia
comes from Latin and means "out of the mind." It is used to describe an acquired, persistent, global impairment of cognition/intellectual processes, which is sufficiently severe to interfere with social or occupational function. Dementia, like delirium, is known as a syndrome, that is, it is a collection of symptoms and signs, whose presence can be diagnosed, but the diagnosis does not in and of itself suggest a cause. For example, the syndrome of dementia has a number of causes, including Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia, and fronto-temporal dementia.
Each of the words in the definition is important both for what it says and what it leaves out. Thus ...