II. Causes : Primary

  1. Alzheimer's Disease (50-60% of Dementia cases)
  2. Pick's Disease (Frontotemporal Dementia)
  3. Vascular Dementia (5-20%)
  4. Dementia with Lewy Bodies
    1. Parkinson's Disease
    2. Huntington's Disease
    3. Wilson's Disease
    4. Progressive supranuclear palsy

III. Causes: Secondary

  1. Multi-infarct Dementia (15-20% of Dementia cases)
  2. Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus
  3. Head Trauma
  4. Mass lesions (Intracranial Tumor)
  5. Drug toxicity or metabolic disturbance
    1. Anticholinergic Medications
    2. Vitamin B12 Deficiency
    3. Hypothyroidism
    4. Alcohol-related Dementia
    5. Wernnicke's Encephalopathy
  6. Infections
    1. Creutzfeldt-Jakaob Disease
    2. Neurosyphilis
    3. AIDS or Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
    4. Opportunistic infection (e.g. Toxoplasmosis, Cryptococcus)
    5. Encephalitis
  7. Multiple-systems atrophy
  8. Hypoperfusion (severe CHF)

IV. Differential Diagnosis

V. References

  1. Khoujah and Magidson (2016) Crit Dec Emerg Med 30(10): 3-10
  2. Falk (2018) Am Fam Physician 97(6): 398-405 [PubMed]

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