Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder: Vascular Dementia

In this article we’re going to talk about Vascular Dementia. With this type of dementia, oxygen and blood flow that provides the necessary nourishment of the nerve cells and brain are disrupted. There are three major reasons this can happen; bleeding, blockage, or limiting the flow of blood.

In these instances, the brain cells not getting nourishment die, unless other blood vessels nearby take over the task. The specific symptoms the person will show, will depend on what structures or parts of the brain are being injured with the change of blood flow. With some of these events, the person may show an show an improvement after a few days, but the person typically does not make a full recovery. Below we’ll discuss more about each reason.

Bleeding

One cause is an event that leads to bleeding is when the blood vessel ruptures and blood pours out. The nerve cells become damaged by the pressure from the blood and they die because they are not getting nourishment. This can be either slow, which is difficult to notice, or rapid and can be noticed immediately.

Blockage

A second cause is when there is a blockage in the blood vessel. In this case, the blood vessel is clogged and the oxygen and nourishment can’t get through, leaving the blocked nerve cells, without nourishment and oxygen.

Limiting The Flow of Blood

The third common cause of the damage is from a partial blockage of blood vessels This typically involves the smallest vessels in the brain. Damage to these vessels is primarily due to buildup of plaque inside as well as inflammation and irritation possibly caused by high blood pressure, problems with sugar processing, or severe drops in blood pressure that result in very limited blood flow to the brain. In this situation there are short periods of time when flow is greatly limited or impaired, but not actually totally stopped. This causes the cells to lose nourishment and malfunction, but not always die. Therefore, symptoms may come and go and behavior & alertness may change significantly over short periods of time.

Information About Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder

Below is more information about vascular neurocognitive disorder:

It is not the same as Alzheimers disease
It has different causes and there are different types
The risk of progression can be reduced
It can look very different for different people
Medical management will be different than for Alzheimer’s disease

Factors That Lead to Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder

Below are some possible factors that may lead to vascular neurocognitive disorder:

Heart attacks
Hyperthermia (heat exposure)
Hypothermia (cold exposure), partial drowning
Low sugar or High sugar episodes (hypoglycemia or diabetic episode)
TIAs (‘mini-stroke’)
Other times in which the blood supply to the brain is cut off or reduced

Causes of Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder

Below are some possible causes of vascular neurocognitive disorder:

Strokes
Hypertension that is not controlled
Heart disease
Diabetes
Peripheral vascular disease
Smoking
Genetic tendencies in the family

Loss of blood flow to the brain can cause vascular neurocognitive disorder. This can happen s a result of:

Heart Attack
Head injury
Blood pressure dropping too low for a length of time

Reducing Risk of Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder

There are many things that can reduce your risk of developing it and making a difference in progression. Below we’ve listed a few:

Early detection
Diagnosis
Careful monitoring and treatment are critical for making a difference in progression.

How Common Is Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder?

Depending on the source of information, it is either the second most common or the third most common neurocognitive disorder
It is more common in areas where the rate of cardiovascular, or heart and blood vessel disease and adult onset diabetes are higher.
Men are at a higher risk of developing this than women.
Age is a risk factor.
Some forms hit early 30-40 year olds, others hit later 50-80 year olds

Struggles With Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder

There are many struggles that people have with vascular neurocognitive disorder may encounter. We’ve broken these down into three categories.

Thinking

Mild loss of ‘thinking or judgment skills’ compared to educational level and past performance
Memory problems tend to include both difficulties with forming new memories (learning new things) but also remembering older events correctly ( different than with Alzheimer’s disease
Disorientation to current situation – not able to appreciate the difficulties they are having
Difficulty speaking, finding words, and comprehension

Emotional

Change in typical personality and behaviors
Apathy (not wanting to do anything), inability to ‘get going’, sitting around all the time, more sleeping or resting, less activity, more refusals to ‘do anything’
Severe depression may set in – it may look sad or angry – may include changes in eating, sleeping, self-care, enjoyment, mood, and talk of ‘ending it all’
Mood swings (rapid changes in mood and feelings without a clear cause)
Delusional thinking (has fantasies about what others are doing or thinking – these things are not true)

Movement or Performance

Difficulty using hands and tools to do familiar tasks
Difficulty with balance and coordination in walking
Inability to move or weakness in arms or legs
Getting lost and confused, sometimes even in familiar settings
Difficulty keeping track of time – mis-remembering appointments and mis-judging how long something takes
Difficulty swallowing safely
Slowed movement or performance on typical activities
Reflexes may be very strong and may interfere with normal function
Urinary incontinence may occur early and fairly suddenly

We hope that this article on Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder (Vascular Dementia) was helpful. Please feel free to Contact Us if you have any questions.