Different types of dementia and how to treat the disease

This brain disease awareness month, we're focusing on the important topic of dementia. Many people associate dementia with Alzheimer's, which is a common type of dementia that typically occurs as you get older. It is a degenerative disease that comes with an array of distressing symptoms, most commonly memory loss and behavioural issues such as anger and personality changes. Symptoms vary depending on the person and stage of Alzheimer's, which becomes more severe with time. Most people with Alzheimer's are over the age of 65. 

Read more about the key differences between Alzheimer's and dementia

Although Alzheimer's and dementia are often thought of as interchangeable, they are not the same disease. Dementia is a term to describe a type of brain damage, which includes Alzheimer's. There are over 200 subtypes of dementia. According to Dementia UK, around 944,000 people are living with dementia in the UK, and someone develops dementia every three minutes. If you are living with dementia or have a loved one struggling with the disease, you're not alone and there is ample research and support available to help people manage their symptoms and embrace life with the disease.

This blog shares more expert information about some of the most common types of dementia (excluding Alzheimer's), common symptoms, and how to get treatment.

If you want to know more about Alzheimer's, you can have a private assessment for memory problems with one of our specialists.

Vascular dementia: the second most common type of dementia in the UK

According to the British Heart Foundation, vascular dementia is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's. The NHS states that around 180,000 people in the UK live with the disease.

Vascular dementia is caused by a reduce blood flow to your brain, which damages and eventually kills brain cells. It is usually caused by a stroke, which causes the blood supply to part of your brain to be suddenly cut off due to a blood clot. It can also be caused by the narrowing of small blood vessels deep inside your brain, known as subcortical vascular dementia or small vessel disease.

There are some factors that can increase your risk of getting vascular dementia, which includes smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, and drinking too much alcohol. This is because these factors increase the likelihood of damage to the blood vessels in and around your brain, as well as blood clots. The risk of vascular dementia is higher as you get older, with people over the age of 65 being most at risk.

Vascular dementia and atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an irregular heart rhythm which increases your risk of stroke. It can cause a blood clot to form in one of the top chambers of your heart. This blood clot can be pumped out of your heart to your brain where it can cause a stroke.

As vascular dementia often develops after a stroke, people with AF are at higher risk.

Find out more about treatment for atrial fibrillation

Common symptoms of vascular dementia

Symptoms of vascular dementia can start suddenly after a stroke, or they can develop gradually.

Early signs of vascular dementia can include mild difficulty with planning and understanding nuances of conversation, problems with your concentration, and small changes to your mood or behaviour.

These are so mild they usually aren't noticeable in the beginning and might be mistaken for a different condition, such as depression.

Later symptoms usually get progressively more severe with time. They include memory loss, feeling disoriented and very confused, mood swings and lack of interest, and loss of bladder and bowel control.

Dementia with Lewy bodies: the third most common type of dementia

According to Alzheimer's Research UK, dementia with Lewy bodies is the third most common disease that causes dementia after Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. For every 100 people who have dementia, about 10-15 will have dementia with Lewy bodies. This means that around 100,000 people in the UK have this type of dementia.

Dementia with Lewy bodies, also known as Lewy body dementia, is caused by clumps of protein forming inside your brain cells, which are called Lewy bodies. These are the same clumps of protein found in people with Parkinson's disease, and they form in the areas of your brain that helps with vital functions such as muscle movement, thinking, and vision. It is unclear why these proteins build inside your brain and impact your normal functions so greatly, but lots of research is being done to understand this more clearly.

Symptoms of dementia with Lewy bodies differ from other types of dementia. People can experience:

• Hallucinations, which includes hearing voices and seeing visions that are not real
• Problems with understanding and memory, similarly to Alzheimer's
• Stiff limbs and uncontrollable shaking
• Fainting spells and falls
• Disturbed sleep

These symptoms can be very distressing, but there are many successful treatment options such as medication and specialist therapy to help people manage their symptoms and keep them at bay.

Alcohol related dementia

Alcohol related dementia, also referred to as ARBD, is a type of brain damage caused by binge drinking. Drinking too much alcohol over a long period of time can damage your brain, causing issues with memory loss and your ability to think clearly. Alcohol can damage your brain in several ways. It can become toxic to your brain cells, causing them to die and a person's brain to shrink. It can also cause damage to the blood vessels in your brain, which can lead to a high blood pressure.

Alcohol also puts you at higher risk of experiencing a traumatic head injury when drunk. You might fall and hit your head, or you might find yourself in a situation whereby someone hits your head in an act of violence.

According to Alzheimer's UK, around one in 10 people with dementia have some form of ARBD.

Commons symptoms of ARBD vary from person to person. Some people will only have mild changes to their thinking and memory, while others will have more serious issues, including memory loss and difficulty with speech and concentration.

Many people can reverse ARBD if they access the right support for alcoholism and become sober.

Get treatment for alcohol addiction with Circle Health Group.

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA): a rare form of dementia

This is an uncommon form of dementia that usually develops between the ages of 50 and 65. PCA is caused by a breakdown of the cells at the back (or posterior) of your brain. Alzheimer's Association marks that it is not clear yet whether PCA is a separate disease from Alzheimer's, or a variant form of this type of dementia.

The symptoms of PCA are very different from person to person, and they get worse as the diseases progresses. The most common symptoms mirror those caused by damage to the posterior cortex of your brain, which is the part that enables you to process visual information. If this area becomes damaged, people often develop difficulties with visual tasks such as judging distances, reading, and understanding the difference between moving and stationary objects. In the later stages of the disease, people can experience hallucinations, memory loss, and severe anxiety.

Young-onset dementia: developing dementia before the age of 65

It can take much longer to reach a diagnose for dementia when you are under the age of 65, because symptoms are often misdiagnosed as a different condition more commonly found in young people. Young-onset dementia is relatively rare and usually presents with different symptoms than in older people, even if it caused by the same disease (for example, vascular dementia). It is important to remember that young-onset dementia is a term to describe dementia in young people, which can be caused by many types of dementia. Symptoms in young people include:

• Compulsive behaviour
• Losing interest in people or things (also known as apathy)
• Losing inhibitions
• Problems understand complex sentences
• Mistakes in grammar
• Difficulty recognising familiar people or objects

Getting treatment for dementia

Although dementia can be very difficult to live with, there are so many treatment options available for all kinds of dementia.

This includes medication to significantly reduce symptoms and improve your quality of life, specialist therapy such as cognitive stimulation therapy to help with memory and concentration problems, and therapy for your mind to help you practically manage the emotional toll dementia can take on you and your loved one's lives.

If you're struggling with symptoms and dementia and want to speak with a specialist, you can call us or book online to arrange a consultation with a consultant that specialises in dementia.