Dementia
16
Key Points
➤ Management of dementia in the PALTC setting involves the entire
interdisciplinary team including social work, physical therapy,
nursing, and medical teams.
➤ To differentiate dementia, delirium, and depression, it is important to
obtain collateral history.
➤ Once a diagnosis of dementia is established, the next step should be
to try to categorize the type of dementia to aid in planning and goals
of care conversations with family members.
➤ A diagnosis of delirium increases risk of subsequent dementia.
RR=1.7 (cardiac surgery), RR=2.1 (non-cardiac surgery), RR=6.4-41.2
(orthopedic surgery).
3
Recognition
STEP 1: Recognize disorders in which cognitive function is
affected
Table 1. Neurological Conditions in Which Cognitive Function is
Affected
• Alzheimer's disease (AD)
• Anoxic brain injury
• Delirium
• HIV/AIDS-associated dementia
• Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)
• Lewy body disease (LBD)
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Normal-pressure hydrocephalus (NPH)
• Parkinson's disease (PD)
• "Parkinson's-Plus" Syndromes (progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system
atrophy, corticobasilar degeneration)
• Huntington's disease (HD)
• Vascular dementia
