The caregiver burden is demanding and requires 69 to 100 hours per week for each patient. Caregivers of patients with dementia have 46 percent more physician visits and require 70 percent more medications. Dementia is an important cause of U.S. mortality, resulting in more than 173,000 deaths in 1995. Dementia has equaled stroke as the third leading cause of mortality in the country after cancer and heart disease. Alzheimer s disease is the most common cause of senile dementia.
Stroke is second.
The stroke-related form of the disease is called vascular dementia. Dementia occurs six times more often in stroke patients than in the general population. Stroke causes dementia by destroying critical brain areas. Stroke also markedly worsens the clinical manifestations of Alzheimer s disease. At least half of the patients with Alzheimer s disease also have vascular brain lesions.