Often victims of one or more chronic diseases, they may take as many as 14 to 18 different prescription drugs in the course of a year. This, along with age-related changes in the way their bodies handle drug metabolism, makes the elderly more vulnerable to side effects and interactions between different drugs that can lead to confusion and disorientation. Diuretics, digitalis, oral anti-diabetic drugs, painkillers, antiinflammatory agents, sedatives, and antipsychotic drugs have all been implicated in such adverse drug reactions. Another common cause of usually treatable dementia-like symptoms is depression. Depressed individuals are often passive and unresponsive and may appear confused, slow and forgetful.
Chronic alcoholism can also impair mental faculties, particularly memory for recent events.
A small number of these victims have multi-infarct dementia. In these cases, obstruction of the blood flow to the brain has caused a series of minor strokes resulting in death of brain tissue. The rest have Alzheimer's disease.