3 - Alzheimer’s Dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease

Summary

I now have a special interest in Alzheimer’s disease. For nearly 25 years, I practiced general neurology in Portland, Oregon. Some of my patients had dementia, a progressive neurological disorder that causes severe cognitive impairment affecting memory, language, motivation, and mood, interfering with everyday activities. There are several diseases that can cause dementia, including Lewy body disease, Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal degeneration, and vascular dementia, but Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause, accounting for 60–80% of cases. In 2013, I retired because I had developed mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that was soon shown by biomarker testing to be due to early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. I suddenly wore two hats – that of a retired physician with a lot of experience treating Alzheimer’s disease and now a person living with the same disorder.