The word ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language.
These changes are often small to start with, but for someone with dementia they have become severe enough to affect daily life.
A person with dementia may also experience changes in their mood or behaviour.
This video explains a little more about dementia:
Dementia is caused when diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or a series of strokes, damage the brain.
The brain works by sending millions of messages from one part of the brain to another and these messages control everything we think, say or do.
When cells in the brain are damaged, these messages cannot get through.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, but not the only one.
The specific symptoms that someone with dementia experiences will depend on the parts of the brain that are damaged and the disease that is causing the dementia.
The image below indicates the most common types of dementia and the next section explains these in more detail.
