What is vascular dementia?

Vascular dementia is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.

Vascular dementia occurs when blood vessels in the brain are damaged. This reduces blood flow to brain cells, which affects how they work.

Sometimes this blood vessel damage can cause memory and thinking problems that are not severe enough to be considered dementia. This may be called vascular cognitive impairment. The most common types of dementia are:

Stroke-related dementia. A stroke occurs when blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly cut off. This may cause problems with movement, coordination, speech or sight depending on the part of the brain affected. If someone has problems with memory and thinking after a stroke, they may be diagnosed with post-stroke dementia. If the problems develop after a number of strokes or mini-strokes (transient ischaemic attacks, or TIAs), it may be described as multi-infarct dementia.

Subcortical vascular dementia. This is caused by changes to very small blood vessels in the brain, often referred to as small vessel disease. The person usually does not notice these changes, but they can cause memory and thinking to get worse over time, unlike the sudden change that can happen after a stroke.

Dr Behzad Basit is an experienced Psychiatrist who helps patients with living with dementia. With his medical career starting in 1988, Dr Basit been described by patients and colleagues as very approachable and can help patients experiencing problems with memory and possible Dementia. His background in general practice, psychiatry and psychotherapy enables him to take a holistic approach in the assessment and management of patients.

We invite you to learn more about Dementia here.

To book a consultation with Dr Behzad Basit, please complete our contact form here.

Source: Alzheimers Research UK