Compare Types of Dementia Symptoms: Diagnosis and Dementia Stage

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What is Dementia?

Dementia is not a specific disease. Rather, it is an overall term that encompasses a set of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other cognitive skills that are severe enough to impair a person’s ability to perform their day to day activities.

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What’s the difference between Dementia & Alzheimer’s?

Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia. Often, the term dementia is used interchangeably with Alzheimer’s by the average person. However, dementia is actually an umbrella term that describes a set of symptoms while the former is a specific type of dementia. Just like Alzheimer’s there are several other types of dementia, see below for info on each.

Getting the right diagnosis is important

Without the right diagnosis, it’s very difficult to get proper treatment or to understand what is happening. It’s important to know that it is extremely difficult for physicians to diagnosis dementias.

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Main Types of Dementia

*These are general estimates based off research papers and studies.

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What are general differences between the 4 types?

	Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)	Fronto-Temporal Dementia (LBD)	Lewy Body Dementia (LBD)	Vascular Dementia (VD)
Location in Brain	Typically starts with shrinkage in Hippocampus. The amygdala is generally affected later.	Frontal and/or temporal lobes shrink. The different sub-types of FTD reflect different patterns of damage.	Multiple areas of the brain – abnormal protein deposits in the cerebral cortex, limbic system and brain stem	A large area of tissue on one side of the brain dies because the blood supply is suddenly cut off
Average age when diagnosed	65<	45<	50<	60<
Average length of duration	4-8 Years	7-8 Years	5-8 Years	5 Years
Physical Impairment	Rare until end stages	Depending on variation can be drastic in early stages, more severe in late stages	Mild until later stages	Common in early stages
Verbal/Writing Impairment	Mild in early stages, progressively gets worse over time	Depending on variation can be drastic in early stages, more severe in late stages	Mild until end stages	Common in early stages
Behavior Impairment	Rare until end stages	Can be drastic in early stages	Can be drastic in early stages – fluctuations in behavior	Mild until end stages
Memory Impairment	Mild in early stages, progressively gets worse over time	Depending on variation can be drastic in early stages, more severe in late stages	Become more common in later stages	Mild until end stages

*These are general estimates based off research papers and studies. This does not represent all individuals and these symptoms can vary drastically on an person-to-person basis.

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