Dementia: current developments

This is a short review of the current developments taking place in the field of the dementias. This branch of medicine is growing apace with fresh research findings being published continually in respect to etiology, risk and protective factors, clinical typology and treatment effects. At the same time we know remarkably little about the natural history of cognitive decline and in effect, normal aging. There is clearly a vital need for longitudinal studies. Also, new hypotheses are needed to explain the critical memory defect in dementia. In fact, better treatment of the memory defect, and the associated behavioral problems found in dementia is urgently needed and even demended by an increasingly more sophisticated public.