Dementia is a chronic progressive cognitive impairment caused by diseases and conditions that affect the brain. It can affect people at different life stages and speeds. Dementia has many potential causes including drugs, emotions, metabolic disturbances, infections, tumors, head injuries, and alcohol. Over 850,000 people in the UK have dementia currently, and this number is expected to rise significantly in coming decades as more people live longer. Dementia poses huge emotional and financial burdens for those with the condition and their unpaid caregivers.

1. What is Dementia?

2. What is Dementia?
 Dementia is used to describe the symptoms that occur
when the brain is affected by specific diseases and
conditions. Dementia is a chronic progressive problem of
cognition which is failure of the brain’s functions.
 Dementia affects people at different stages of life,
affects different parts of the brain and at different
speeds.

3. Dementia
 D= Drugs, Delirium
 E=Emotions (such as depression) and Endocrine
Disorders
 M=Metabolic Disturbances
 E=Eye and Ear Impairments
 N=Nutritional Disorders
 T=Tumors, Toxicity, Trauma to Head
 I= Infectious Disorders
 A=Alcohol, Arteriosclerosis

4. What causes Dementia?
 Age related impairment
 Depression
 Delirium
 Other illnesses

5. Who is Affected ?
 There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with
numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. This will soar to 2
million by 2051.
 225,000 will develop dementia this year, that’s one every three
minutes.
 1 in 6 people over the age of 80 have dementia.
 70 per cent of people in care homes have dementia or severe
memory problems.
 There are over 40,000 people under 65 with dementia in the
UK.
 More than 25,000 people from black, Asian and minority ethnic
groups in the UK are affected.

6. How much does it cost?
 Two thirds of the cost of dementia is paid by people with
dementia and their families.
 Unpaid carers supporting someone with dementia save the
economy £11 billion a year.
 Dementia is one of the main causes of disability later in
life, ahead of cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke.
As a country we spend much less on dementia than on
these other conditions.