Assessing the patient with young onset dementia

Abstract

Young onset dementias pose a particular diagnostic challenge and a special burden for the carers and society. This term reflects a new approach to patients under the age of 65, a theoretical cut-off point, indicative of employment and retirement issues with no specific biological value. The differential diagnosis in younger patients with dementia is broad. not only the degenerative dementias may present with a different phenotype in ages under 65 years but the possibility to reveal a treatable cause or a rare reversible metabolic disease is higher. Detailed clinical assessment and thorough laboratory investigation are both needed to reach the correct diagnosis.