2 Introduction It can be a daunting task for the advanced practitioner to diagnose dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Dementia diagnosis requires at least two main cognitive functions to be sufficiently affected to interfere with daily living activities. These include the ability to reason, memory, language skills, problem solving, and visual perception. There is no definitive test for diagnosing dementia, so clinicians need to perform multiple assessments such as cognitive and neurophysiological tests to determine memory, cognition, thinking, judgment, vocabulary, and attention. Neurological examination can be used to evaluate the skills, senses, balance and problem solving. The provider may also order brain scans to test for signs of stroke or tumor. CT scans can be used to display brain activity patterns and identify amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. Providers can use blood tests to diagnose b-12 defects, as well as testing spinal fluid for signs of infection. All of these can assist in properly diagnosing patient with new onset dementia or Alzheimer’s. Advancing age is the main known risk factor for AD. The age of onset is 65 years or older in 90 percent of patients. The risk of AD increases exponentially after 65 years of age, doubling every 10 years until 85 to 90 years of age, after which the risk of reducing or decreasing rates of AD. A family history of AD is the only other known risk factor (Rosenthal, & Burchum, 2018).
