Memory Loss, Alzheimer's Disease, and Dementia

SECTION I: EVALUATING THE PATIENT WITH MEMORY LOSS

1. Why Diagnose and Treat Memory Loss, Alzheimer's Disease, and Dementia?

2. Evaluating the Patient with Memory Loss or Dementia

SECTION II: DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF MEMORY LOSS

3. Approach to the Patient with Memory Loss, Mild Cognitive Impairment, or Dementia

4. Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment due to Alzheimer's Disease

5. Dementia with Lewy Bodies (Including Parkinson's Disease Dementia)

6. Vascular Dementia and Vascular Cognitive Impairment

7. Primary Progressive Aphasia & Other Disorders of Speech

8. Frontotemporal Dementia

9. Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

10. Corticobasal Degeneration

11. Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus

12. Jakob-Creutzfeldt Disease

13. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

14. Other Disorders That Disrupt Memory

SECTION III: TREATMENT OF MEMORY LOSS

15. Goals of Treatment of Memory Loss, Alzheimer's Disease, and Dementia

16. Cholinesterase Inhibitors

17. Memantine (Generic and Namenda XR)

18. Vitamins, Herbs, Supplements, and Anti-Inflammatories

19. Future Treatments of Memory Loss

20. Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Memory Loss

SECTION IV: BEHAVIORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS OF DEMENTIA

21. Evaluating the Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

22. Caring For and Educating the Caregiver

23. Non-Pharmacological Treatment of the Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

24. Pharmacological Treatment of the Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

SECTION V: ADDITIONAL ISSUES

25. Life Adjustments

26. Legal and Financial Issues

27. Special Issues

ONLINE ONLY APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Cognitive Test and Questionnaire Forms, Instructions, and Normative Data

APPENDIX B: Screening for Memory Loss

APPENDIX C: Our Current Understanding of Memory

Andrew E. Budson, M.D. is Chief of Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology, Associate Chief of Staff for Education, and Director of the Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System, Associate Director for Research at the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center, Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, and Lecturer in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He is also the Medical Director of the Boston Center for Memory, located in Newton, Massachusetts. His training included graduating cum laude from Harvard Medical School, being chief resident of the Harvard-Longwood Neurology Residency Program, pursuing a fellowship in dementia at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and studying memory as a post-doctoral fellow in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience at Harvard University. Dr. Budson has had government research funding since 1998, receiving a National Research Service Award and a Career Development Award in addition to a Research Project (R01) grant. He has given over 425 local, national, and international grand rounds and other academic talks. He has published over 100 papers, reviews, and book chapters and is a reviewer for more than 40 journals. He has co-authored or edited five books, including Memory Loss, Alzheimer's Disease, and Dementia: A Practical Guide for Clinicians, the second edition of which has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. He was awarded the Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioral Neurology in 2008 and the Research Award in Geriatric Neurology in 2009, both from the American Academy of Neurology. His current research uses the techniques of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience to understand memory in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In his memory disorders clinic at the VA Boston Healthcare System he treats patients while teaching fellows, residents, and medical students. He also sees patients in Newton at the Boston Center