ABSTRACT
Dementias are acquired mental disorders characterised by a progressive and largely irreversible disorganisation and deterioration of mental functions. Although the deficit is primarily cognitive, the symptomatology is by no means restricted to these functions and quite often it affects the personality and character, emotions, activity, motivation, and initiative. The progression of the disease ultimately may compromise the basic sensory and motor physiological basis of the nervous organisation. The clinical symptomatology of the dementias results from the progressive structural damage of the central nervous system that affects most severely the cortical mantle of both the neocortex and the limbic and paralimbic systems.
