Changing relative prevalence of Alzheimer disease versus non-Alzheimer disease dementias: have we underestimated the looming dementia epidemic?

The relative prevalence of neurodegenerative dementias in our Veterans' Affairs dementia clinic has shifted from predominantly Alzheimer disease (AD) to predominantly non-AD diagnoses. Because our clinic was the only Veterans' Affairs clinic in Oklahoma that could initiate cholinesterase inhibitors, we had a captured patient referral source. If future epidemiologic studies establish that non-AD dementias are as, or more, prevalent than AD, then the looming dementia epidemic in the United States will be greater in magnitude than currently predicted.