A doctor told her she was losing her memory, she says, on the basis of a minimental test 30 questions to test her memory. My friends won t visit me. My husband doesn t want me around. Statistics say one in two people older than 85 will have some form of dementia. But there are many causes and many forms.
Depression causes confusion.
Even a urinary tract infection can make an elderly person appear to have memory loss, says Dr. John Blass, professor of neuroscience at Cornell University Medical College. There was no point. There was no treatment. Today, drugs that help delay the onset of severe Alzheimer s symptoms are available, and some patients are complaining that the drugs are prescribed after minimal testing, says Linda Scheck, director of the Orange County Alzheimer s Association. Since women live longest, most of the people diagnosed in these minimental tests are female.