[Vascular (arteriosclerotic) and Alzheimer's dementia in neurologic-psychiatric patient sample].

Abstract

Despite the obviously more important degeneratively conditioned dementias, particularly of the Alzheimer-type, dementias due to vascular disorders are still of considerable relevance. They are even predominant among autopsies in a neurological-psychiatrical hospital, showing, however, a decreasing tendency. Though this cannot reflect the real incidence of a disease, because many cases of dementia die in geriatric or nursing homes, mostly not autopsied, exact epidemiological examinations of autopsy-cases seem to be advisable, limited temporarily and locally for economic reasons. Topographical specialities and modern methods of investigation in living persons increasingly enable a differentiation of vascular and degenerative dementias and thus frequently an effective treatment.