Neurocognitive disorders
Dementia in Alzheimer’s disease
The most common form of dementia. It begins almost imperceptibly with memory loss, followed by a gradual decline in thinking, orientation and behaviour.
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What is dementia in Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease causes 60–70% of dementia cases worldwide. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease: over time, the person finds it harder and harder to manage daily activities on their own.
In the brain, the disease is characterised by the build-up of abnormal proteins (beta-amyloid and tau protein), which lead to the damage and death of nerve cells. This process begins years, sometimes decades, before the first visible symptoms appear.
Two main types:
- Late onset (after the age of 65): the most common form
- Early onset (before the age of 65): a rarer form, but often with a stronger genetic component
If a first-degree relative (parent, brother, sister) has Alzheimer’s disease, the risk increases, but the disease is not inevitable.
When to see a specialist
An assessment is worthwhile if you notice any of these in yourself or someone close to you:
- memory loss that affects everyday life
- repeating the same questions or stories
- getting lost in familiar places
- difficulty with ordinary activities (cooking, managing money)
- frequent confusion about the date, time or place
- visible changes in personality or mood
- changes the family has noticed that cannot be put down to age
Important: occasional forgetfulness is not dementia. It becomes a reason for an assessment when it is frequent, gets worse over time and interferes with ordinary activities.
The earlier the assessment is done, the more effective and better planned the intervention can be.
With the doctor’s support, your loved one and the family can keep as much of the daily routine as possible.
See also: Dementia: new treatments for Alzheimer’s
The first step
If you recognise these signs, book a conversation with one of our specialists. Together, we’ll look at what’s going on and what your options are.
For the assessment, we recommend that the patient comes with someone close to them, with the patient's agreement. If that is you, what you have noticed at home helps us understand the changes.
Besides the psychiatric consultation, the assessment can include tests of memory and thinking, carried out by the team’s clinical psychologists. If getting to the clinic is difficult, the psychiatrist can also do the consultation as a paid home visit in Bucharest and Ilfov.
Services: Psychiatry · Psychological assessment
See our team and pricing.
This information is for educational purposes and does not replace a specialist consultation.