Neurocognitive Disorders & Diseases

According to the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s, a progressive disease, is the most common form of dementia in older adults. We are still discovering more about the causes of Alzheimer’s, but currently, it’s believed to be due to a combination of factors like environment, genetics, and overall health. The two main occurrences in the brain that are believed to cause Alzheimer’s disease are plaque deposits of a protein called beta-amyloid and tangles of another protein called tau. These proteins can kill nerve cells in the brain, resulting in memory loss, challenges to daily tasks, and changes to a person’s personality.

Dementia is an umbrella term, rather than a specific disease, that refers to cognitive impairments that are significant enough to interfere with daily tasks. Alzheimer’s disease, for example, is a form of dementia. The CDC projects that by 2060 as many as 14 million people, ages 65+, will suffer from some form of dementia. To be clear, simply forgetting names or memories once in a while is not dementia. When a person struggles with things like basic communication, forgets how to navigate a familiar neighborhood, or has difficulty doing previously familiar tasks, it could mean they are suffering from some form of dementia.

Frontotemporal degeneration is a term that is used for a number of different diseases affecting the frontal and/or temporal lobes of the brain. Different from forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal degeneration often affects younger people. While memory is usually an early symptom of Alzheimer’s, in frontotemporal degeneration, symptoms might include changes in a person’s behavior, language, and movement.

Neurocognitive disorder is an umbrella term that is used for a number of diseases, illnesses, or injuries that cause mental impairment. Though some of the symptoms may present similarly to a mental illness, neurocognitive disorders are not mental illnesses. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s all cause neurocognitive disorders, as can issues and illnesses such as concussions, traumatic brain injuries that lead to brain bleeding, septicemia, meningitis, encephalitis, and substance abuse.