Is Vascular Disease Of The Brain The Same As Vascular Dementia?

Posted on Wed, 21 Apr 2021

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 Answered on

Fri, 3 Jan 2025 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello, my grandfather was just diagnosed with vascular disease of the brain. I wasn't in the room when he was diagnosed so I don't know a lot of details. I do know that the doctors said that it was because of decades of diabetes and his family has a history of dementia. I have a few questions:
Is vascular disease of the brain the same as vascular dementia?
In the future will he get violent? His grandmother got very violent when she had dementia.
Is this a fast acting disease?

Answered by Dr. Heang Chan Raksmey (-1 hours later)

Brief Answer:
See detail bellow

Detailed Answer:
Hello Ashleyinscore, thank you for your question and I hope I can be of help to you today.

I am sorry to hear about this. Vascular dementia is referred to any dementia that is primarily caused by cerebrovascular disease or impaired cerebral blood flow as a contributing causative factor. So vascular dementia is the result of vascular disease. Because a stroke can cause vascular dementia, risk factors for stroke are also the risk factors for vascular dementia. The risk includes advanced age, hypertension, diabetes, elevated total cholesterol level, smoking, etc.

Dementia can be a violent and fast or gradually-acting disease.

I hope that I could be of help to you today. Please let me know if you need any clarification. If you have any more questions, I will discuss them with you further. Wishing your grandfather good health.

Best regards,

Dr. Heang Raksmey, General and Family Physician

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana