The Differentiation of Multi-Infarct and Alzheimer Dementia

Abstract

The great decline in mortality from infective disease in the Western industrialized countries as a result of the introduction of antibiotics has greatly changed the age structure of the population. About 14 per cent of people are now aged 65 years or more. They become heir to the diseases of later life among which is numbered dementia. It is estimated that about 1 in 20 of those aged 65 years or more will become demented; among those aged over 80 years — the old old of geriatrics — the figure is nearer to 1 in 5. Dementia is therefore a new type of epidemic, not in the sense of being passed from person to person but in the sense of large numbers being afflicted at any one time.