DIAGNOSIS CHECKLIST
for Dementia

Why: type symptoms? - to determine if acute or chronic. If onset is rapid and symptoms have been present for hours to weeks must consider delirium as possible cause of symptoms. Delirium is an acute confusional state due to many causes e.g. infection, drug intoxication, alcohol withdrawal, liver failure, kidney failure, hypoxia, low blood sugar, stroke, heart attack or head injury. If the onset is slow and insidious and symptoms have been present for months to years a diagnosis of dementia, psychiatric illness or intellectual disability may be more likely.

Why: e.g. impaired memory, impaired judgement and thinking, impaired verbal fluency and impaired ability to perform complex tasks. Personality may change, impulse control may be lost and personal care deteriorates. People with dementia may also have psychiatric symptoms such as delusions, paranoid ideas, hallucinations, mood disturbance and behavioral disturbance.

Why: e.g. if symptoms are worse in the late afternoon and at night, delirium ( acute confusional state) is most likely. Dementia -type symptoms and acute psychosis have minimal variation over the course of 24 hours.

Why: suggests multi-infarct dementia.

Why: patients with cerebral arteriosclerosis e.g. stroke or with AIDS notice their memory slipping whereas patients with Alzheimer's disease are unaware of memory loss.

Why: e.g. high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, family history - can assess risk of multi-infarct dementia.

Why: e.g. Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis.

Why: chronic alcohol abuse may cause Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

Why: may determine risk of HIV and syphilis infection which may cause dementia.

Why: e.g. limb weakness or paralysis, facial muscle weakness or paralysis, difficulty with speech and swallow.

Why: e.g. relentlessly progressive course of dementia, chorea (continuous flow of jerky movements, flitting randomly from one limb or part to another), personality change ( especially irritability), epilepsy.

Why: e.g. coarse hand tremor most marked at rest, rigidity of limbs, slowness in initiating and executing movements and speech, expressionless mask-like face and dementia.

Why: Depression may exhibit many of the features of an early dementia, especially memory impairment, slowed thinking and lack of spontaneity.

Why: can suggest any infection that may cause delirium.

Why: may suggest brain cancer or acute stroke.

Why: e.g. delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking - may suggest an alternative diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. However these symptoms may occur in dementia.