AIMS. In this study, we review dementias that are potentially reversible. The paper summarises the causes that essentially require management by medical means, while causes of a surgical nature will be dealt with in a second article. These papers attempt to avoid mistaken diagnoses and labels in patients with a high potential to improve their cognitive disorder and to guide us towards a more suitable management. DEVELOPMENT. Dementia is a public health problem, mainly in countries with long life expectancy. It has an incidence of 3-11% in patients over the age of 65, and 20-50% in those over 85 years old. Most of them (50-70%) have Alzheimer-type dementia, followed by the vascular type (20%); there is a smaller percentage of cases of the so-called subcortical dementias and also those secondary to medical and/or surgical conditions that suggest potential reversibility. These latter cases are not easy to recognise and their incidence, depending on the series, ranges from 0 to 37%. Once they have been diagnosed, it is still difficult to state whether they will in fact turn out to be reversible. Their most common causes, such as deficiencies, metabolic disorders, chronic diseases, toxins, and so on, must be detected as early as possible, which can be done by means of clinical observation and use of the laboratory.
CONCLUSIONS Although the potential to improve in patients with a diagnosis of reversible dementia is still subject to discussion, this brief review guides us in the search for their causes and their management, since late detection and management are very likely to be the cause of a poor progression.
KeywordsReversible dementiasSymptomatic dementiasCategoriesDemenciaNeuropsiquiatría
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