Current definition and classification of dementia diseases.
BACKGROUND
Current clinical diagnosis of dementia diseases mostly relies exclusively on the symptom picture, but there is no clear dividing line between the symptoms per se and the pathological changes.


CONCLUSIONS
The above indistinctness characterizes the current most widely used definitions and classification systems for dementia diseases. There is also a lack of integration, as different categories of doctors conceptualize the dementia syndrome differently, and the various existing classification systems put the emphasis on different aspects of dementia diseases.


CONCLUSIONS
As a first step towards an up-to-date classification of dementia diseases, a distinction between symptoms and pathological changes should be made. A second step is to find patterns both of biological markers and of neuropsychiatric symptoms that are linked to the various pathological changes of the disease.
Wallin
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Göteborg University, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Mölndal Hospital, Sweden.
D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D003704:Dementia / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010348:Patient Care Team