Diagnosing Dementia at Primary Care Setting

Dementia accounts for 11.2% of years lived with disability of people aged 60 years or older, and patients with dementia have a substantially shortened life expectancy. In many countries, the current configuration of services for people with dementia will not cope with the consequences of the demographic shift that is now under way: primary care will need to adopt a more active role. Primary care professionals need to acquire new skills, particularly around psychosocial interventions and the development of systematic care packages and pathways. Primary care practitioners can effectively master the diagnostic task in the early stages of dementia syndrome, once they know what it is they are facing, and what resources they can call upon. Authors present recent advances in this field which are able to help primary care parishioners on this task.