Garre-Olmo J
Hospital de Santa Caterina. Institut d'Assistencia Sanitaria, Salt, Espana.
Rev Neurol. 2018 Jun 1;66(11):377-386.
Dementia is a clinical syndrome resulting from a number of causations and which is usually accompanied by progressive and diffuse brain dysfunction. The different subtypes are characterised by a clinical picture with common symptoms that differ in terms of their aetiology, age, clinical presentation, clinical course and associated disorders.
To present an update on the information available about the descriptive epidemiology of dementia and its main subtypes.
The main data on prevalence, incidence and mortality were extracted from a literature review. Alzheimer's disease is the most frequent subtype and accounts for 60-80% of all the cases, followed by vascular dementia and other neurodegenerative dementias, such as dementia due to Lewy bodies, the dementia-Parkinson complex and frontotemporal dementia. Other subtypes of dementias present frequencies below 1%, and the epidemiological indicators available are not very robust.
The prevalence and incidence of dementia increase exponentially from the age of 65 onwards. As a consequence of the progressive ageing of the population and the increase in life expectancy, the number of cases of dementia will rise in the coming decades. Recent studies point to a slight drop in the accumulated risk of dementia adjusted by age groups and sex over the last few decades in some countries. It is possible that by means of primary prevention strategies implemented upon the known risk factors for dementia the burden of dementia on public health will diminish in the future.
痴呆是一种由多种病因引起的临床综合征，通常伴有进行性和弥漫性脑功能障碍。不同亚型的特征是临床表现具有共同症状，但其病因、年龄、临床表现、临床病程及相关疾病有所不同。
介绍有关痴呆及其主要亚型描述性流行病学的现有信息更新情况。
患病率、发病率和死亡率的主要数据来自文献综述。阿尔茨海默病是最常见的亚型，占所有病例的60%-80%，其次是血管性痴呆和其他神经退行性痴呆，如路易体痴呆、痴呆-帕金森综合征和额颞叶痴呆。其他痴呆亚型的出现频率低于1%，现有的流行病学指标不太可靠。
痴呆的患病率和发病率从65岁起呈指数增长。由于人口的逐渐老龄化和预期寿命的增加，未来几十年痴呆病例数将会上升。最近的研究表明，在过去几十年中，一些国家按年龄组和性别调整后的痴呆累积风险略有下降。通过针对已知痴呆风险因素实施一级预防策略，未来痴呆对公共卫生的负担可能会减轻。
