What is the difference between forgetfulness, cognitive impairment, and dementia in the era of 1 million people with dementia?
Feb 27, 2025
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In English, dementia is 'dementia', which means 'dementia', and in Chinese characters, 'didn't be silly, silly hawk' literally means a state in which cognition has deteriorated a lot. The term dementia itself does not mean a single disease, but rather a state of decreased cognition.
Lee Jae-jeong, director of the Department of Neurology at Bundang Jesaeng Hospital, said "Dementia is divided into degenerative and non-degenerative dementia. Degenerative dementia refers to dementia that occurs primarily without a clear cause, and non-degenerative dementia refers to the occurrence of dementia due to a preceding disease. Various diseases that occur directly in the brain (cerebrobleeding, cerebral infarction, encephalitis, convulsive seizures, etc.) can cause dementia symptoms and can also be caused by crony diseases such as systemic diseases, side effects of drugs, and depression, so various tests such as blood tests and brain imaging are meticulously conducted at the beginning of treatment to discriminate diseases. "
Among degenerative dementia, Alzheimer's dementia accounts for 70% and vascular dementia accounts for about 20%, and about 15% of Alzheimer's dementia and vascular dementia occur at the same time.
Alzheimer's dementia, which has the largest number of patients, is a disease caused by a combination of factors such as aging, brain activity, sleep deprivation, and stress, causing amyloid and tau proteins to accumulate abnormally in the brain and not be discharged from the body. As the brain shrinks and the lesion progresses, brain cell damage eventually progresses throughout the brain, resulting in poor understanding and language judgment, causing obstacles to independent daily life performance.
Manager Lee Jae-jeong said "The clinic often asks about the distinction between forgetfulness and dementia. If you give a hint, you can remember most of forgetfulness, but if you don't remember it and forget it completely, you can worry about dementia. Simple forgetfulness generally complains of memory and various cognitive decline, but it is a stage that does not interfere with daily life yet. Dementia is not only memory, but also various mental abilities such as language ability, space-time grasping ability, and personality, resulting in a continuous decline in function. "
In addition, section chief Lee Jae-jeong said "An important difference between mild cognitive impairment and dementia is whether there is a decline in daily life performance. Mild cognitive impairment refers to a condition in which cognitive decline is felt and cognitive performance is deteriorated compared to the same age group, but there is no problem with the ability to perform daily life yet. It can also be said to be an intermediate stage between normal aging and dementia. Patients with mild cognitive impairment progress to dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease, at a rate of about 10-15% per year. Even if it is a mild forgetfulness that occurs in the elderly, if there is a repetitive or progressive appearance, it is necessary to seek medical attention from a neurologist and make efforts to diagnose dementia early. However, on the contrary, 85% of them do not progress to dementia, so I would like to ask you not to worry too much", he added
Dementia is characterized by cognitive decline, but it does not directly die from dementia. However, if dementia progresses and eventually motor disorders such as movement and walking occur, the risk of death increases. Due to the occurrence of swallowing disorders, pneumonia and insufficient hygiene management can lead to urinary tract infections and urinary ulcers caused by vasculature, and in severe cases, death from sepsis.
Methods of preventing dementia and mild cognitive impairment are not much different. It is necessary to refrain from drinking and smoking, and to maintain health through proper management and regular exercise of vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes. In addition, you should play or read that allows you to rotate your brain a lot, get enough sleep, and develop healthy eating habits.
Manager Lee Jae-jeong said "When a dementia patient occurs, the first thing a patient's family should do is to accept dementia. vague anxiety about dementia is a factor that makes the family more difficult. It is important to know about dementia, and it is important to establish a network that can help each other by clearly informing the surroundings when dementia patients occur in the house. Patients with dementia usually do not input new information, but since past information remains relatively, it is recommended not to change the structure of the house as much as possible, and for dementia patients, only emotions are often transmitted rather than information, so if a guardian gets angry while providing information to a patient, the patient takes it as angry rather than accepting the information, so the guardian should also try to separate emotions and not pass them on to the patient."
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
