Early onset dementia

Abstract

The term early onset dementia (EOD) refers to cases of dementia which occur in patients aged less than 65
years old (synonym: presenile dementia). EOD has a severe impact on the everyday life of both the patient
involved and his caregivers. This situation is challenging for the clinician, taking into consideration the fact
that differential diagnosis is broader as compared to late onset dementia. Infrequent degenerative causes
or rare diseases including inherited metabolic disorders need to be excluded. Moreover, even common
degenerative dementias like Alzheimer disease have an unusual clinical pattern in younger patients
and are therefore more difficult to diagnose. A thorough evaluation of symptoms, family history and
neuropsychological deficits along with a targeted laboratory testing would unveil the underlying disorder
in most cases. This is of great clinical significance since a great proportion of EOD causes are putatively
treatable when diagnosed during an early stage of the disorder.