This post may be of interest to those dealing with dementia-like symptoms and wondering if there are other causes besides neurological disorders.
An article, in Next Avenue, is about non-neurodegenerative conditions that cause dementia-like symptoms. See:
www.nextavenue.org/dementia-symptoms/
Is It Dementia? Maybe or Maybe Not
Other conditions come with similar symptoms, experts say
Next Avenue
By Emily Gurnon, Health & Caregiving Editor
August 3, 2016
Lots of conditions present with dementia-like symptoms — depression, medication side effects, nutritional deficiencies, or metabolic problems, for example. The key to knowing if it’s dementia or something else is testing. Sometimes that’s neuropsychological testing, blood tests, depression testing, or neuro-imaging. Or changing medications.
My father had progressive supranuclear palsy (confirmed through brain donation). When we saw the first neurologist, I was very surprised when the neurologist ordered a syphilis test. He said he wanted to be as sure as he could be that it was PSP and not something else. Sure enough, syphilis is listed below as a condition causing dementia-like symptoms.
Robin