[Alzheimer disease--differential diagnosis and modern therapy]

Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are a multidisciplinary challenge and become more and more important because of the growing life expectancy, and also due to the presence in the media. A. Alzheimer published first 100 years ago the disease named after him as an entity marked by the clinical course and by typical histological findings. The last decades brought remarkable progress in demarcation to other forms of dementias for example by CT or MRI. The cause of Alzheimer's disease has not yet been cleared up. The finding of secondary dementias has great importance since causal therapeutic possibilities exist. In the last years new ideas to etiology in respect to the hypothesis of acetylcholine resulted in new therapeutic promises. A rational treatment of this disease seems now possible. Besides psychological and behavioral signs and symptoms of dementia are of great importance in the care of these patients.