Senile dementia is a pressing medical and social problem for modern societies. Till now, there is no cure for dementia.
Senile dementia is actually a group of several different diseases.
The common ones are Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, Parkinson's disease, and Lewy body disease. In Alzheimer's disease, the commonest form, the brain atrophies and abnormal proteins, called amyloid, accumlate in the brain substance, in the form of senile plaques. In addition, abnormal filaments appear in the brain cells, the neurons, and they are called neurofibrillary tangles. The Department of Psychiatry of the Chinese University has conducted the first and only study on the prevalence of dementia in Hong Kong. A community sample of 1034 elderly were interviewed.