Spotlight: Alzheimer's disease & dementia

This month is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness month, so we thought we would explore Alzheimer's and dementia a bit more closely. The word dementia derives from the Latin word ‘demens', meaning ‘out of one's mind'. The term itself has been used since the 13th century. The Greeks used it to describe all sorts of psychiatric and neurological conditions, not just the dementia which we now typically associate with Alzheimer's and other similar conditions. It wasn't until the 19th century that ‘senile' dementia was recognised as a specific medical condition. In 1906, the German physician, A...