Let’s talk about 25 lesser-known types of dementia you might not know about.
While Alzheimer’s disease accounts for most dementia diagnoses in America, doctors are identifying more patients with uncommon variants – forms of the disease that often go unrecognized in family clinics across the country.
Dementia Beyond Alzheimer's Disease
The grocery store was a five-minute drive from Margaret Thompson’s house.
After 40 years, she could make every turn in her sleep – past Ace Hardware, hang a right, and drive straight through two stoplights.
But one April morning, nothing made sense.
“I sat in my car for two hours, completely lost,” the 72-year-old grandmother said, her hands tight around a coffee mug in her Seattle living room.
“The streets looked like a foreign country.”
Her family had noticed small changes – forgotten birthdays, mixed-up names at Christmas dinner.
They blamed age, maybe stress.
Then Margaret got the diagnosis that changed everything: Posterior Cortical Atrophy, or PCA.
Her brain was betraying her eyes before touching her memories.
“Look at this,” she says, holding up a family photo. “I know my daughter’s in here, but it’s like someone smeared Vaseline on the glass.
My eyes work fine. It’s my brain that can’t put the picture together anymore.”
Thompson’s case exposed a hidden truth about dementia in America.
While Alzheimer’s grabs headlines and research dollars, doctors now recognize hundreds of other types of dementia.
Each one most go unnoticed until families are in crisis.
Everyone knows about Alzheimer’s. But tell someone their mother has PCA or Binswanger’s Disease – they’ve never heard of either.
That costs precious time.
Here are 25 Types of Dementia You Might Not Know
1. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
Most forms of dementia creep. CJD sprints. This brain disorder rips through minds in months, not years.
The culprits are prions – twisted proteins that punch holes through brain tissue.
By the time families notice the first dropped cup or forgotten name, the clock is already running. Most patients have six months. Some have less.
2. Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH)
In the grim world of dementia, NPH stands alone. It offers something rare – a way back.
The problem isn’t dead brain cells but trapped fluid, pressing against healthy tissue.
A surgical drain can release the pressure, sometimes bringing back the person families thought they’d lost.
The catch? Doctors must spot it before the damage sticks.
3. Huntington’s Disease
In families with Huntington’s, every child faces the same question: did I inherit it?
The odds never change – 50/50, like a coin flip with loaded stakes. The disease kills brain cells in a predictable pattern.
First movement fails. Then thinking clouds. By the end, patients need round-the-clock care. Some families watch three generations fade at once.
4. Parkinson’s Disease Dementia (PDD)
The shaking comes first. The confusion follows. Eight out of ten Parkinson’s patients eventually battle dementia.
The combination hits twice as hard – a mind that can’t remember how to work a body that won’t listen.
Family members become full-time translators between brain and limb.
5. Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)
PSP paralyzes from the eyes down. First, patients can’t look up or down. Then balance fails. Speech turns to mush.
The mind stays sharp enough to count each loss, until that too begins to slip. The disease moves fast – months mark declines that should take years.
6. Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD)
In CBD, the body turns traitor before the mind goes. A hand might move on its own, grabbing or hitting against its owner’s will.
One side of the body rebels while the other remains normal. This “alien limb syndrome” marks the beginning – cognitive decline follows as the brain deteriorates unevenly.
7. Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome
Years of heavy drinking rob the brain of thiamine, creating holes in memory that the mind fills with fiction.
Unlike most dementias, this one comes with a clear cause – and sometimes, a chance to prevent it.
But once established, the damage remains even after someone stops drinking.
8. Mixed Dementia
Think of Mixed Dementia as a perfect storm in the brain. Blood vessel damage combines with protein buildups.
Multiple types of dementia strike at once. The brain faces attacks on several fronts, speeding up decline.
It’s more common than once thought – many older adults show signs of more than one form of dementia.
9. Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA)
The eyes still work, but the brain can’t understand what they see.
PCA strips away visual processing while memories stay intact. A face becomes a puzzle of unconnected features.
Streets turn into mazes. Books become meaningless patterns on a page.
It’s like trying to read through a kaleidoscope – everything’s there, but nothing makes sense.
10. Limbic-Predominant Age-Related TDP-43 Encephalopathy (LATE)
For years, doctors called it Alzheimer’s. The symptoms matched perfectly.
But autopsies told a different story – the brain damage came from TDP-43 proteins, not the familiar plaques of Alzheimer’s.
LATE rewrote the book on late-life dementia. Now doctors wonder how many Alzheimer’s diagnoses were wrong all along.
11. Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB)
DLB turns days into roller coasters. Morning brings clarity – afternoon sees conversations with empty chairs.
The hallucinations in DLB aren’t vague shadows but vivid, detailed scenes. A patient might spend hours talking to long-dead relatives or trying to catch nonexistent butterflies.
The worst part? They often know what’s real and what isn’t, trapped between two worlds.
12. Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)
Words vanish first in PPA. Not memory, not personality – just language.
A lifetime of vocabulary slips away like water through fingers. The mind stays sharp enough to recognize every lost word.
Some patients carry notebooks full of basic phrases, struggling to piece together sentences that once flowed naturally.
13. CADASIL
Some families pass down recipes or heirlooms. Others pass down CADASIL – a rare form of vascular dementia that strikes in the prime of life.
Tiny strokes chip away at the brain, sometimes starting as early as age 30.
Children watch their parents decline, knowing they might carry the same genetic time bomb.
14. Binswanger’s Disease
Deep in the brain, blood vessels break down like old pipes. Each tiny leak damages surrounding tissue.
Before memory fails:
- Personality changes
- Mood swings appear
- Depression sets in
Walking becomes difficult as neural pathways crumble.
The damage spreads slowly but relentlessly through the brain’s white matter.
15. HIV-Associated Dementia (HAD)
Modern HIV treatments changed everything – except this. Even with controlled HIV, some patients develop cognitive problems.
The virus hides in brain tissue, causing subtle damage over years. Attention fails first, then memory, then motor skills.
It’s a reminder that HIV remains a full-body disease, even when blood tests show the virus in check.
16. Alcohol-Related Dementia (ARD)
The brain keeps score of every drink. After years of heavy drinking, the bill comes due.
ARD steals executive function first – the ability to plan, to make sound decisions, to control impulses.
Even after the drinking stops, the damage remains. Brain scans show tissue withered by decades of alcohol exposure.
17. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)-Related Dementia
Old injuries cast long shadows. Head trauma from car crashes, combat, or contact sports might seem healed, but the brain remembers.
Years or decades later, cognitive problems surface. Each past concussion adds to the toll. The damage builds silently until one day, memories start to slip.
18. Fahr’s Disease
Calcium creeps into brain tissue like frost spreading across a window.
These deposits show up on brain scans as bright spots, spreading through areas that control movement and thought.
The process starts years before symptoms appear. By the time problems surface, calcium has already riddled the brain’s deep structures.
19. Metabolic Dementia
Not all memory loss means permanent damage. Sometimes the brain starves for hormones, vitamins, or thyroid function.
These metabolic dementias can improve with treatment – if caught in time. It’s like a car running on empty; fill the tank, and function returns.
20. Paraneoplastic Limbic Encephalitis
Cancer tricks the immune system into attacking the brain. Memory fails before tumors show up on scans.
The body’s own defenses turn against brain tissue, causing confusion and personality changes.
Quick cancer treatment sometimes reverses the damage, but the window closes fast.
21. Dementia Pugilistica
The human brain wasn’t built for repeated impact. Every hit leaves its mark.
Once called boxer’s dementia, this condition now shows up in football players, soldiers, and other contact athletes.
Years after the impacts stop, memory fades. Mood shifts. Anger flares. The past comes back to collect.
22. MELAS Syndrome
Cell batteries run down in MELAS. The brain, always hungry for energy, starts to fail.
Stroke-like episodes hit without warning, each one leaving new damage behind.
Seizures come and go. The mind dims as cells struggle to power basic functions.
23. Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD)
Fats build up where they shouldn’t, choking brain cells. This genetic disorder strikes mainly men, damaging both brain and adrenal glands.
Some patients show symptoms in childhood, others in middle age.
Blood tests can catch it early, buying precious time before decline sets in.
24. Niemann-Pick Disease Type C
Children shouldn’t get dementia. But Niemann-Pick Type C breaks all the rules.
This genetic disorder stops cells from processing fat correctly. The buildup slowly poisons the brain.
Some patients hold off symptoms until adulthood, but the outcome remains the same.
25. Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker Syndrome (GSS)
GSS runs in families like a curse. This prion disease passes from parent to child, striking in adulthood.
Unlike its cousin CJD, GSS takes its time – years of watching movement and thought slip away.
Each generation faces the same fate, played out in slow motion.
25 Lesser-Known Types of Dementia You Might Not Know About - Conclusion
Dementia robs individuals of their memories, independence, and, ultimately, their identities.
From the rapid decline of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease to the genetic heartbreak of Huntington’s, these lesser-known types of dementia present unique challenges that demand greater awareness and understanding.
For many families, the journey is lined with uncertainty, but resources and specialized care can make a profound difference.
If you or a loved one is facing the complexities of dementia, Applewood Our House offers compassionate, expert care tailored to meet the unique needs of those affected.
Contact ApplewoodOurHouse.com to learn more about how they can help you navigate this difficult journey with dignity and support. Because no one should face dementia alone.
