[The confusion relating to the concept of dementia and Alzheimer's disease].

Much confusion exists about the definition of the term dementia and about diagnostic criteria of dementing diseases. This confusion not only forms an impediment in the progress of scientific research, but is also potentially harmful for patient care. Recently, considerable improvements are made by consensus conferences in designing operational diagnostic criteria. However, application of these in daily practice is still not optimal. In this publication, differences in meaning of the concept of dementia and Alzheimer's Disease are discussed. A proposal is made how to overcome misunderstandings in daily practice.