ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the behavioral, emotional and cognitive alterations resulting from a pathology with a great prevalence in the elderly population: cerebrovascular disease (CVD). It provides a detailed account of the psychiatric syndromes that are associated with the clinical signs of CVD, analyzes the repercussions that this often overlooked condition have on the management of the cerebrovascular pathology. Asymptomatic cerebrovascular disease is a condition that, although it displays no apparent previous neurological symptoms, has already caused vascular damage. This is typical of asymptomatic carotid stenosis. The cerebrovascular disease must be proved by clinical and neuroimaging data. The atrophy in the corpus callosum has also been linked with the cognitive deterioration of patients with cerebrovascular disease. The cognitive deterioration associated with isolated leukoaraiosis is more restricted than that caused by the lesion of the base gray nuclei, with memory, abstract thinking, and visuoconstructive abilities and language remaining unimpaired.
