What is the difference between amnesia, alzheimer’s and dementia?

644 views

Everytime I hear about these three diseases I always put them in the same box: forgetting stuff. And I never really understood the difference between them

In: Biology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A very simplistic explanation:

Amnesia: memory loss caused by trauma (using this term very broadly), disease or drug use; can be temporary or permanent, can be loss of memories or inability to form new ones. It’s not just forgetting things, but more like whole chunks are gone.

Dementia: broad term for brain disorders that affects cognitive function (memory, thinking, problem-solving, etc) and is also a broad term for symptoms declining brain function. Dementia gets worse over time, although sometimes can be reversed.

Alzheimer’s: a form of dementia, an incurable disease.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Dementia is an umbrella term for cognitive decline that is typically associated with age. There are numerous types of dementia, including Alzheimer Dementia.

Alzheimer disease is a specific disease that causes dementia.

Amnesia simply means a loss of memory. Like dementia, there are numerous types of amnesia. The most common one is alcohol induced amnesia, aka “blacking out”.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Amnesia – you forget everything at once, but it wears off.
Alzheimer’s – you forget everything backwards. (You remember the past but not today.)
Dementia – you forget how to do things and the things around you don’t make sense.

This is an incredibly simplistic explanation of the three.

Anonymous 0 Comments

[removed]

Anonymous 0 Comments

Dementia involves more than one type of mental ability. For example, a person with dementia may have trouble with memory, planning, and language abilities. (One caveat: to qualify as dementia, a person must have their deficits while having “a clear sensorium.” That is, they can’t be drunk, stoned, or delirious.) Alzheimers disease is one type of dementia.

Amnesia refers specifically to a failure in memory.

Amnesia and some types of dementia can be permanent or temporary. Some examples of temporary causes of dementia are hypothyroidism and severe depression.