Determining the cause of dementia

In conclusion, dementia remains a major health problem among the elderly. Although Alzheimer's disease is now recognized as the major cause of dementia, there exist many other conditions which can be easily confused with Alzheimer's disease and for which specific treatment is available. Despite inherent problems in clinically diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, a careful and organized approach to the evaluation of the dementia patient will usually allow the clinician to determine the specific cause of the dementia and with a fairly high degree of accuracy.