Memorydisorder.net

There are many different genetic brain disorders. Some of them cause problems in children and others have profound affects on adults. The most common memory disorder is called, dementia. Some people believe that this organic brain disorder has a genetic component. Certain people are at risk due to their family history of the disease. The problem with these diseases are that there are many potential ways to affect the brain. Dementia is a syndrome with many causes, and affects greater than 4 million Americans. These disorders are a big portion of health care, since dementia alone results in a total health care cost of >$100 billion annually.

A memory disorder is the most common cognitive problem with dementia. Almost 10% of persons who are greater than 70 and 20-40% of individuals greater than 85 have clinically signifcant and identifiable memory loss. In addition to memory problems, other mental functions are affected in dementia. Some of these issues include language, visuospatial ability, calculation, judgment, and even problem solving. Neuropsychiatric and social behavioral problems also develop in many people with dementia. They result in depression, withdrawal, hallucinations, delusions, agitation, and disinhibition. Unfortunately, the most common forms of dementia are progressive. Most diagnoses of dementia require some sort of memory deficit, but there are many dementias. One specific one is frontotemporal dementia, where memory loss is not a presenting feature.

An organic brain disorder is one that stems from non-psychiatric cause of altered mental functioning. A brain infection or a brain tumor are examples of organic disorders. Depression and schizophrenia are not typically organic disorders, but can be brought on by specific organic syndromes. Most organic disorders tend to be temporary and cause a person to have delusions or other cognitive impairments. They will not be able to communicate properly and have a poor memory. Patients who have these problems are called delirious since their ability to perceive the real world is impaired. The good thing is that most of the time the delirium improves when the disorder is treated. This does not tend to happen with the non-organic disorders and other psychiatric problems.

There are some genetic diseases that can cause organic disorders. Problems such as Huntingtons disease or multiple sclerosis could be thought of as organic. In Huntingtons there is a direct relation to genetics and the association in multiple sclerosis is weaker. Huntingtons is inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion, which means that there is usually a 50% chance of getting the disease from your parents. Multiple sclerosis has many different genes and risk factors, so the genetics is not as clear. In this way people have a variety of risks of genetic brain disorders based on the disorder and their family genes.