Age Perception and Dementia

Professionally it is now considered bad form to call elderly people who cannot remember things very well "demented". Nor is it acceptable to blame it on aging. Today, anyone with dementia-like changes is entitled to a thorough examination. Despite that, there are still many elderly people who have not been examined for dementia-like changes.

When young people suffer a cognitive decline, it is viewed as alarming. That is due to preconceptions from the past where people believed that dementia symptoms corresponded to the expectations people have for physical decline due to old age. Dementia symptoms went hand in hand with growing old!