This type of injury can occur after very minimal trauma, and its onset can be very gradual if the leak is small. Symptoms are headache, confusion, and lethargy and are often nonspecific. Toxic factors - Exposure to substances such as carbon monoxide, aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel, airborne molds and methyl alcohol cause mental impairment. The hormonal changes that accompany aging are only recently being clearly identified. A sudden drop in the hormones estradiol and progesterone , for example, lead to menopause at about age 50.
Metastatic tumors are more common.
Depression Depression , stress , and grief are common causes of mental impairment that are transient and treatable. Depression in older people is often overlooked because symptoms are confused with those of a medical illness. Although older adults may have difficult experiences such as changes in health status, relocation, or loss of loved ones, if the sadness that follows one of these life changes lingers for a long period of time, it may be diagnosed as clinical depression. Depression has serious consequences. It takes the pleasure out of daily life, aggravates other medical conditions by compromising immune function, and can even lead to suicide.