Symptoms for Vascular Dementia Can Vary Widely

Vascular Dementia may account for 12 to 20 percent of all Dementias and is the second most common age-related Dementia.

Unlike the gradual progression of Alzheimer's disease, the onset of Vascular Dementia symptoms is often abrupt and occurs when a heart attack or a stroke dramatically reduces blood flow to or through the brain. Hallucinations, rather than the memory loss associated with early-stage Alzheimer's disease, are another indicator of Vascular Dementia.

Vascular Dementia can also have a slow progression. This happens when the cumulative damage of transient ischemic attacks – often called TIAs – causes many small areas of brain damage and, eventually, noticeable symptoms. The descriptive term "multi-infarct Dementia" is used by healthcare providers to describe this type of Vascular Dementia. Infarcts refer to the many (multiple) areas of non-functioning brain tissue that accumulate over time. Multi-infarct Dementia is the most common type of Vascular Dementia.

Depending on the location within the brain, multi-infarct Dementia produces a spectrum of physical, behavioral, and emotional changes. An example of a physical change is shuffling or walking with small, rapid steps. Behavioral symptoms can include slurred speech, getting lost in familiar surroundings, and difficulty in following instructions. Sometimes people cry or laugh at inappropriate times.

As you can now appreciate, telling the difference between Alzheimer's disease and Vascular Dementia can be difficult. If the changes appear rapidly, Vascular Dementia, resulting from a stroke or heart attack, is the likely culprit. To make things even more complicated, many people have both Alzheimer's disease and Vascular Dementia.

Reducing the Risk of Vascular Dementia

There are several ways you can reduce the risk of Vascular Dementia. Some of these include: maintaining healthy blood pressure; eating a healthy diet; maintaining a healthy weight; exercising regularly; and refraining from or quitting smoking. It is worth noting that all of these modifiable conditions and behaviors affect the cardiovascular system and blood flow to the brain.

References:

Vascular cognitive impairment and vascular Dementia. Mayo Clinic. Updated 2026.

Content Contributor: Janet Yagoda Shagam, Ph.D., is a freelance medical and science writer and the Author of "An Unintended Journey: A Caregiver's Guide to Dementia", available through Amazon. Please visit our Author's page to learn more and find this title.

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