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Dementia

Get started with a quick overview.

12 minutes

 

 

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What is dementia?

Test your knowledge of dementia with this quiz.


What is cognition and why does it matter?

Cognition is our ability to interact with the world around us. It includes many important functions, such as:

  • Learning and memory – our ability to remember conversations and events or learn new information;
  • Language – reading, writing, speaking and understanding;
  • Visual and spatial function – how we navigate around our environment;
  • Executive function – how we make decisions, solve problems and organize our life; and
  • Social function – how we interact appropriately with our family, friends, and colleagues.   

If certain areas of the brain become damaged, one or more of these cognitive functions may be weakened.

When cognitive function is weakened to the point that it impairs a person’s ability to function independently on a day-to-day basis, then they have developed dementia.

Read our detailed overview to learn the basics about dementia.

Download our handout 'Dementia: An Overview'.

Topics

Purple glowing brain signifying cognitive impairment

Dementia: An Overview

Learn the basics of dementia, including causes, symptoms, stages, treatments, safety issues, caregiver wellness, supports, and how to promote brain health.

Learn more.

(12 minutes)

3-D brain with some areas of darkness signifying mild cognitive impairment

What is Mild Cognitive Impairment?

Understand the difference between normal aging and mild cognitive impairment, its causes, diagnosis, management, treatment, and steps to take after a diagnosis.

Learn more.

(20 minutes)

3-D dark brain signifying dementia with cogs representing cognition

What is Dementia?

Explore what cognition is and how it is impacted by dementia. Learn the common causes and other possible causes of dementia-like symptoms.

Learn more.

(15 minutes)

3-D dark brain signifying dementia with image of blood vessels and toxic proteins

Different Types of Dementia

Learn the signs, symptoms, and causes of Alzheimer disease, vascular, Lewy body, frontotemporal, and Parkinson disease dementias..

Learn more.

(25 minutes)

3-D dark brain signifying dementia with pill bottle and bandaids for treatment

How is Dementia Treated?

Explore how to manage dementia's cognitive, behavioural, emotional and psychiatric symptoms and how disease modification strategies address its underlying causes.

Learn more.

(20 minutes)

What are cognitive changes associated with aging?

As we age, some of our cognitive abilities gradually decline. We can’t remember quite as much when learning new information; we don’t process things quite as fast, and learning more complicated tasks becomes more difficult. We do, however, continue to make lifelong memories, and even our vocabularies and wisdom may continue to improve into later life.

The changes associated with aging are subtle. For instance, somebody forgetting what they ate for breakfast by lunchtime would never be associated with normal aging. Some degree of cognitive decline is normal and expected as we age; but, importantly, the changes associated with normal aging don’t impact an individual’s ability to function independently.


How is dementia diagnosed?

There is no one test to determine if someone has dementia. Health care professionals diagnose the different types of dementia based on:

  • a careful medical history,
  • a physical examination,
  • laboratory tests,
  • pen and paper tests that evaluate cognitive function,
  • the characteristic changes in thinking, day-to-day function and behaviour associated with each different type of dementia.

What can you do?

Recent research has shown that there are several actions you can take to promote brain health and delay or prevent cognitive impairment.

It is never too early or too late to reduce your risk of dementia.

Read our detailed overview to learn more about what you can do to promote your brain.


Authors

Anthony Levinson(SQUARE)_jpg

Anthony J. Levinson, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Neuropsychiatrist, Professor; Faculty of Health Sciences, ÆßÃõ¼º½

Richard Sztramko

Richard Sztramko, MD, FRCPC

Consultant Geriatrician and Internist, Vancouver Coastal Health

About this Project

This page was developed by the Division of e-Learning Innovation team and Dr. Anthony J. Levinson, MD, FRCPC (Psychiatry) and Dr. Richard Sztramko, MD, FRCPC (Internal Medicine, Geriatrics). 

Dr. Levinson is a psychiatrist and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behaviour Neurosciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, ÆßÃõ¼º½. He is the Director of the Division of e-Learning Innovation, as well as the John Evans Chair in Health Sciences Educational Research at ÆßÃõ¼º½. He practices Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, with a special focus on dementia and other cognitive and mental disorders in the medically ill. He is also the co-developer, along with Dr. Sztramko, of the dementia care partner resource, and one of the co-leads for the ÆßÃõ¼º½ Optimal Aging Portal. He and his team are passionate about developing high-quality digital content to improve people's understanding about health. 

Dr. Sztramko is a consultant geriatrician and internist for Vancouver Coastal Health who also completed a fellowship in Behavioural Neurology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Through his work with patients with dementia and their families, Dr. Sztramko came to understand that there is a desire and need for online education about dementia that has been developed by experts in geriatrics. This inspired him to pursue the creation of iGeriCare, on which this content is based.

A team of experts in geriatrics and mental health reviewed the content for accuracy, and care partners of people living with dementia participated in the design and development of the content on iGeriCare.

Are there any important disclosures or conflicts of interest?

Dr. Levinson receives funding from ÆßÃõ¼º½ as part of his research chair. He has also received several grants for his work from not-for-profit granting agencies. He has no conflicts of interest with respect to the pharmaceutical industry; and there were no funds from industry used in the development of this content or website.

Dr. Sztramko has no conflicts of interest to disclose with respect to development of this content.

When was it last reviewed?

November 29, 2024.

What references and evidence were used to create this content?

The content was written and adapted by experts in geriatrics and neuropsychiatry based on credible, high-quality, evidence-based sources such as the National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, American Academy of Neurology, National Institutes of Health, the American Psychiatric Association and the DSM-5 TR (2022), Health Quality Ontario quality standards, Recommendations of the 5th Canadian Consensus Conference on the diagnosis and treatment of dementia (2020), the Cochrane Library, the Alzheimer Society of Canada, UptoDate®, the World Health Organization (WHO), and others.

Who funded it?

The initial development of some of this content was funded by the Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), powered by Baycrest, along with additional support from the Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation and Geras Centre for Aging Research. Subsequent funding was through support from the ÆßÃõ¼º½ Optimal Aging Portal, with support from the Labarge Optimal Aging Initiative, the Faculty of Health Sciences, and the ÆßÃõ¼º½ Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA) at ÆßÃõ¼º½. There are no conflicts of interest to declare. There was no industry funding for this content.