About Dementia - Diagnosis

Alzheimer's Foundation of America

• Experienced clinicians can accurately diagnose dementia 90 percent of the time.
• Accurate diagnosis is critical. Some conditions that cause symptoms of dementia, such as hormone imbalance, vitamin deficiency and infections, can be reversed. For irreversible dementias, treatment options vary depending on the disease.
• Obtaining a proper diagnosis involves consulting with a healthcare professional expert in dementia, communicating symptoms and undergoing extensive testing.
• Diagnostic tools include a complete medical history; blood, urine or other medical tests; neuropsychological tests that measure memory, problem solving, attention, and language; and brain scans.
• Individuals with clinically diagnosed dementia have clear cognitive loss in two or more intellectual domains, such as amnesia (loss of memory) and aphasia (inability to communicate effectively), but almost all individuals with Alzheimer's disease demonstrate short-term memory impairment.
• Other types of dementia may begin with a slow loss of memory function; however, a careful, clinical evaluation will usually provide information that suggests dementia other than Alzheimer's disease.