Causes of dementia (mnemonic)

The causes of dementia can be remembered using the mnemonics:

• VANISHED
• DEMENTIA

VANISHED

• V: vascular, vitamin deficiency: B₁, B₆, B₁₂, folate
• A: Alzheimer disease, autoimmune: cerebral vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus
• N: normal pressure hydrocephalus, neoplasia
• I: infection, e.g. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, herpes simplex encephalitis, prion diseases, tertiary syphilis, HIV/AIDS, PML
• S: substance abuse, serum abnormalities e.g. hyperammonemia, uremia, Wilson disease
• H: hormones: hypothyroidism, hyperparathyroidism
• E: electrolyte disturbances: e.g. hyponatremia, hypokalemia, hypocalcemia, hypercalcemia etc.
• D: depression (pseudodementia)

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 disease, LATE, dementia with Lewy bodies etc...) 

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