I post I just saw got me thinking. My Mom is 80 and was diagnosed with AZ early 2007. She has had a rapid decline and I would estimate she is in stage 5 plus. She compensated (hid) her illness and this was what I figured accounted for the rapid decline. At this point she is in an ALF and has little short or long term memory, has a mild swallow reflex problem, speaks very little, shuffles when walking. She knows who I am but refuses to bathe without being "encouraged" ie: forced. And I think she may be starting to have bladder control problems.

She is on aricept and namenda and mood/behavior meds.

Is it possible to have AD and VD? How would one rule one or the other in or out. At this stage does it matter? Should I put her thru more testing? Would there be a benefit to know if she has VD? My Grandfather and Aunt both had AZ so I did not question the diagnosis much.

Your help on this is much appreciated.

My mother had a combination of Alzheimer's and vascular dementia. At least, this is what her behavioral health doctor believed. To my knowledge, while the causes are different, the results are the same. My mother's doctor didn't recommend further testing.

My best wishes to you and your Mom.

I just moved a list of websites about VaD to the top of the list for you. My mom has both VaD (initial diagnosis) and AD. VaD rarely appears alone. Mom is being treated for AD, and we're trying to prevent further mini-strokes, which caused the VaD.

I wouldn't put your mother through more tests if I were you. The effect is the same, as Cranberry said.

Results are the same but treatment is different for Vascular Dementia than treatment for AD. But if both exist, the neurologist is going to have to figure out what to treat and when. If you have a good neuro, I would work with him or her to decide if more testing would help with the treatment. If so... go for it. If not... there's no point in putting your mom through more confusing tests.

NDuke is so right when it comes to the different type of meds needed to treat VD,,even though behavior is the same as AD in many ways.

I dont' know what the hell is up with so many Drs that diagnose "dementia",,right off the bat they prescribe Aricept and Namenda,,which I will tell you from my personal experience with my own Mother,,those 2 drugs were the worst things ever! Needless to say,,they were stopped.

I would highly recommend that you contact your Mom's nuerologist and also her primary care Dr and between the two,,hopefully you can get some resolve to getting her on the "right" meds for her types of dementia,,other than Aricept and Namenda,,which she is probably beyond the stage of the need of either one of those drugs anyhow . Keep us posted. Peace

[quote]I dont' know what the hell is up with so many Drs that diagnose "dementia",,right off the bat they prescribe Aricept and Namenda,,which I will tell you from my personal experience with my own Mother,,those 2 drugs were the worst things ever! Needless to say,,they were stopped.[/quote]

No kidding! I guess they have been told that AD is the most common type of dementia so they don't know any better... if the patient does better... he has AD. If there is no improvement or the patient does worse, he doesn't have AD but another dementia.

Dad, too has vascular dementia and in hindsight, Aricept and Namenda were so bad for him. When we finally took him off of them he became so much more alert, more aware, more responsive... just better in general!