Hi Stephen,

Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia. In other words, Alzheimer's is dementia, but so are vascular, frontotemporal and other types. I hope this helps.

Carol

Dementia is a general term that refers to a group of symptoms that includes memory loss and a decrease in intellectual functioning due to the damage of brain cells.  Dementia can be caused by various diseases, but Alzheimer's disease accounts for about 60 percent of the cases.  The clinical symptoms and progression of dementia depend upon the disease that is causing the dementia and is characterized by the location and type of the damage in the brain.  So, for example, in Alzheimer's disease, the dementia is caused by damage to the brain due to Beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.  The clinical symptoms of dementia of the Alzheimer's type include short-term memory loss, the decrease in thinking and language skills, behavioral changes, and eventually, physical impairments.  While all dementias include memory loss and loss of intellectual functioning, in the other types of dementia, such as those of the vascular or the Lewy bodies types, the specific clinical symptoms and type of brain damage are different from those of Alzheimer's disease.