Causes of dementia (mnemonic)

Last revised by Frank Gaillard on 31 Aug 2021

The causes of dementia can be remembered using the mnemonics:

  • VANISHED
  • DEMENTIA

VANISHED

DEMENTIA

Note: this is not a great mnemonic as it is too broad, has overlapping items (e.g. nutrition, alcohol, toxins), misses important causes of pseudodementia (e.g. subdural hematomas, and tumors) and does not describe the most common causes of actual dementia (e.g. Alzheimer diseaseLATEdementia with Lewy bodies etc...) 

  • D: drugs/depression
  • E: elderly
  • M: multy-infarct/medication
  • E: environmental
  • N: nutritional
  • T: toxins
  • I: ischemia
  • A: alcohol

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