02/23/2026
Dementia is a general term that represents a group of diseases and illnesses that affect your thinking, memory, reasoning, personality, mood and behavior. It’s estimated that about 50% of people age 85 and older have dementia.
The different types of dementia:
Alzheimer’s disease:
This is the most common type of dementia. Two abnormal proteins build up in your brain: tau and amyloid proteins. These proteins disrupt communication between nerve cells in your brain. Symptoms include short-term memory loss, confusion, personality and behavior changes.
Vascular dementia:
This is the second most common type of dementia. It’s caused by conditions such as strokes or atherosclerosis. Symptoms include memory problems, confusion and trouble concentrating and completing tasks.
Dementia with Lewy bodies:
This condition involves the buildup of clumps of proteins — called Lewy bodies — in your brain’s nerve cells. Lewy bodies damage nerve cells. Symptoms include movement and balance problems, changes in sleep patterns, memory loss, planning and problem-solving difficulties, and visual hallucinations and delusions.
Frontotemporal dementia:
This dementia results from damage to the frontal and temporal lobes of your brain. It causes changes in social behavior, personality, and/or loss of language skills (speaking, understanding or forgetting the meaning of common words) or motor coordination.
Mixed dementia:
This is a combination of two or more types of dementia. The most common combination is Alzheimer’s disease with vascular dementia. It’s most common in people 80 years of age and over.
Dementia due to Parkinson’s disease:
Many people in the later stages of Parkinson’s disease develop dementia. Symptoms include trouble with thinking and memory, hallucinations and delusions, depression and trouble with speech.
Ask your healthcare team for information on local dementia support groups, as well. Support groups can be very helpful for sharing care tips and providing comfort in knowing you’re not alone.
