Severe depression in elderly people that mimics dementia. Symptoms include intellectual impairment and loss of memory.
n. a condition in which symptoms of *dementia, including memory disorders, are caused by depression rather than organic brain disease. It is most commonly seen in elderly depressed individuals.
n. a chronic and progressive deterioration of behaviour and higher intellectual function due to organic brain disease. It is marked by memory disorders, changes in personality, deterioration in personal care, impaired reasoning ability, and disorientation. Dementia is usually a condition of old age, but it can occur in young or middle-aged people. The most common causes are *Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia resulting from the destruction of brain tissue by a series of small strokes, and dementia due to diffuse *cortical Lewy body disease (see also frontotemporal dementia). Also common is mixed dementia, which combines aspects of vascular damage and Alzheimer’s disease. It is important to distinguish these organic conditions from psychological disorders that can cause similar symptoms such as *depression (see pseudodementia).... dementia
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