Alzheimers disease (AD) or primary dementia of Alzheimers type is an incurable, degenerative neuropsychiatric disease which results in a pervasive loss of first mental, then physical functioning due to the deterioration of brain tissue. Progressive dementia not due to any external or psychological cause is its primary and most pervasive symptom. Its exact etiology (cause) is still unknown, but is considered to be physiological. Genetic factors are thought to contribute. Certainty of diagnosis still requires autopsy of the brain, to determine the existence of characteristic senile plaques (which while indicators, are not causal factors of the memory loss) within the brain's neuronal structure, the one way to confirm the dementia was not caused by some other illness, substance, injury or disorder...
