Dementia

‘Dementia’ is an umbrella term for a number of progressive, organic brain diseases that affect approximately 850,000 people in the UK. Most neurodegenerative diseases leading to dementia are characterized by processes that result in the aberrant polymerization of proteins. A small proportion of individuals with these diseases develop dementia as a direct result of mutations or polymorphisms in genes influencing these processes. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. Other important causes include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and fronto-temporal dementia.