Further research is required to determine the appropriate palliative care interventions and how well they help people with advanced dementia.Person-centered care helps maintain the dignity of people with dementia. Remotely delivered information for caregivers
Remotely delivered interventions including support, training and information may reduce the burden for the informal caregiver and improve their depressive symptoms. There is no certain evidence that they improve health-related quality of life.In several localities in Japan, digital surveillance may be made available to family members, if a dementia patient is prone to wandering and going missing. Epidemiology
The most common type of dementia is Alzheimers disease. Other common types include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia, and mixed dementia (commonly Alzheimers disease and vascular dementia). Less common causes include normal pressure hydrocephalus, Parkinsons disease dementia, syphilis, HIV, and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. The number of cases of dementia worldwide in 2021 was estimated at 55 million, with close to 10 million new cases each year. By 2050, the number of people living with dementia is estimated to be over 150 million globally. An estimated 58% of people with dementia are living in low and middle income countries. The prevalence of dementia differs in different world regions, ranging from 4.7% in Central Europe to 8.7% in North Africa/Middle East; the prevalence in other regions is estimated to be between 5.6 and 7.6%. The number of people living with dementia is estimated to double every 20 years.
It is one of the most common causes of disability among the elderly but can develop before the age of 65 when it is known as early-onset dementia or presenile dementia. Less than 1% of those with Alzheimers have gene mutations that cause a much earlier development of the disease, around the age of 45, known as early-onset Alzheimers disease. More than 95% of people with Alzheimers disease have the sporadic form (late onset, 80–90 years of age). Worldwide the cost of dementia in 2015 was put at US$818 billion. People with dementia are often physically or chemically restrained to a greater degree than necessary, raising issues of human rights. Social stigma is commonly perceived by those with the condition, and also by their caregivers. History
Until the end of the 19th century, dementia was a much broader clinical concept. It included mental illness and any type of psychosocial incapacity, including reversible conditions. Dementia at this time simply referred to anyone who had lost the ability to reason, and was applied equally to psychosis, "organic" diseases like syphilis that destroy the brain, and to the dementia associated with old age, which was attributed to "hardening of the arteries". Dementia has been referred to in medical texts since antiquity. One of the earliest known allusions to dementia is attributed to the 7th-century BC Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who divided the human lifespan into six distinct phases: 0–6 (infancy), 7–21 (adolescence), 22–49 (young adulthood), 50–62 (middle age), 63–79 (old age), and 80–death (advanced age).