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Current definition and classification of dementia diseases
1Göteborg University, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Mölndal Hospital, Sweden.
Introduction:
Current clinical diagnosis of dementia diseases mostly relies exclusively on the symptom picture, but there is no clear dividing line between the symptoms per se and the pathological changes.
Discussion:
The above indistinctness characterizes the current most widely used definitions and classification systems for dementia diseases. There is also a lack of integration, as different categories of doctors conceptualize the dementia syndrome differently, and the various existing classification systems put the emphasis on different aspects of dementia diseases.
Conclusion:
As a first step towards an up-to-date classification of dementia diseases, a distinction between symptoms and pathological changes should be made. A second step is to find patterns both of biological markers and of neuropsychiatric symptoms that are linked to the various pathological changes of the disease.