A women in her sixties known to me has been diagnosed with dementia, according to her relatives, but it isn’t Alzheimer’s disease.

What are the main other forms of dementia that would be likely to emerge in the 60s?

There is vascular dementia….lots of tiny strokes, gradually having more effect. In the early days, the term Alzheimer’s was applied only to early onset dementia, 40’s 50’s etc. The definitions have changed in the last 10-15 years and most dementia seems to be called Alzheimer’s now. I think really they are sorting things out still.

Of course, we used to just call the old age one senile dementia and be done with it. Like we used to call macular degeneration Senile Macular Degeneration. But people got upset with the word “senile”. It just means wearing out. But it’s become a taboo word.

buffy said:

There is vascular dementia….lots of tiny strokes, gradually having more effect. In the early days, the term Alzheimer’s was applied only to early onset dementia, 40’s 50’s etc. The definitions have changed in the last 10-15 years and most dementia seems to be called Alzheimer’s now. I think really they are sorting things out still.

Of course, we used to just call the old age one senile dementia and be done with it. Like we used to call macular degeneration Senile Macular Degeneration. But people got upset with the word “senile”. It just means wearing out. But it’s become a taboo word.

‘Cos it’s so often used as an insult. “Moron” was originally an acceptable medical term, too.

dv said:

A women in her sixties known to me has been diagnosed with dementia, according to her relatives, but it isn’t Alzheimer’s disease.

What are the main other forms of dementia that would be likely to emerge in the 60s?

My sister said that my mother had non-Alzheimer’s dementia, so I asked her this exact question, but all I got back was a snide response that there are 5 (or 6) different types of non-Alzheimer’s dementia. She didn’t elaborate.

As it happened, a month later my mother got a perfect score on a post-hospital mental assessment that included tests for short term memory, memory after 15 minutes, recognition of animals, recall of time and date, ability to write, ability to touch nose with both index fingers, etc., so I wouldn’t be worried if I was you. This was after she’d had at least two strokes.

In my mother’s case this was exceptionally important, because her mother had Alzheimer’s at the same advanced age.

A women eh, that’ll cause issues.